The Paddington Rail Disaster - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Following the collision, the HSE railway Inspectorate conducted a full investigation as per the directive of the Health and Safety Commission, which sought to answer three major questions in relation to the collision: why the accident happened-this was aimed at reviewing the root cause of the accident and providing information and a complete analysis of the technical causes of the collision. The investigation also sought to answer the question of the critical action that was to be taken by the Railway Inspectorate as a remedy to the problem. On this note, the investigation aimed at providing measures and putting mechanisms in action, to make it easy for a similar problem to be prevented in future. The railway inspectorate, therefore, focused on a long-term remedy. The third objective of the investigation sought to establish whether the action that resulted in the accident could result in an action in terms of enforcement. This was aimed at screening any likelihood of negligence which would propagate prosecution. The investigation involved a public inquiry into the collision in the year 2000 by Lord Cullen. The Cullen inquiry involved two sittings, where one was divided into the accident while the second one looked at the management and regulation of the UK system.
The real accident cause was appropriately identified to have been caused by driver Hodder, the one in charge of the Thames train, who passed an SN109 signal when it was indicating a red signal that is normally associated with danger....
nquiry involved two sittings, where one was divided into the accident while the second one looked at the management and regulation of the UK system (Ingram, 1999). Main points The real accident cause was appropriately identified to have been caused by driver Hodder, the one in charge of the Thames train, who passed a SN109 signal when it was indicating a red signal that is normally associated with danger, some 563 meters away from the point of collision. The public inquiry however identified several contributory causes of the accident which included Thames train driver’s driving capabilities, as he had qualified for his role only some two months earlier and the Rail track of the Great Western which was responsible for its servicing. The major contributory factors of the Paddington rail disaster can therefore be classified into three major categories: Human error-the driver of the Thames Train failed to follow the rules of the SN109 as a restrictive policy, which saw him pass the signal without making a stop. The investigation however left the reason for the violation as undetermined as the driver may not have had enough visibility to detect it. Organizational factors were also attributed to causing the collision. The report by the public inquiry identified a slack and ignorant culture in the Thames Company in regard to training and a string of miscommunication in the company. On the basis of their driver, there was incompetence on the originations part as the assigned driver had received his competency letter 13 days prior to the disaster. The organization also lacked documented evidence to show whether their driver had been taught on the complexities of the specific route he was assigned to. His examination paper also lacked signatures that had been marked to show ...Download file to see next pagesRead More