Safety Roundup
Three risks your safety director should be thinking about
CEOs and MDs know, perhaps more than most, that it takes strong and efficient teams to run an organisation successfully. Think for a moment about your company and the extent to which you depend on colleagues to lead particular areas of the business.
But there’ll be few senior rail leaders, if any, who wouldn’t want to be aware of what’s going on—the external and internal risks and how these are being managed. Many might even want to be able to flag up imminent risks, or those on the horizon, especially where the safety of passengers, the public, and personnel is concerned.
In this safety roundup, we share three risks your safety director should be thinking about. We explain why these risks deserve extra attention right now and signpost to helpful resources.
Summer is fast approaching, meaning the school and college holidays are near. Consistent with previous years, there will likely be a regrettable spike in the number of young people trespassing on the railway. Many of these individuals are unaware of the dangers and opt to play trackside when off school. Much is being done by industry, Network Rail, the BTP and schools to reduce trespass, including campaigns to highlight the grave danger. Meanwhile, we’re facilitating supporting outreach initiatives and providing guidance and case studies about managing trespass risk.
Your safety director can find resources such as case studies and good practice guides on our trespass webpages.
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While summer isn’t far off, autumn will be upon us before we know it, bringing with it the challenge of low adhesion. Caused by moisture on the rail mixing with the film produced by leaves on the line or other contaminants, low adhesion often results in disruptions to passenger journeys. But it can cause bigger problems, such as SPADs, station overruns, and collisions—as the accident at Salisbury Tunnel Junction on 31 October 2021 demonstrated.
Your safety director can find resources such as Double variable rate sanders on our adhesion webpages.
Is your organisation properly equipped to tackle mental ill-health? According to our 2020 survey on the mental health of rail employees, almost half the 4,000 respondents met the criteria for clinical mental health conditions. Covid-19 could be partly to blame, as the survey was conducted during the pandemic. But many issues noted predate 2020 or are ongoing, such as work-related violence. Add to these new burdens, including the cost-of-living crisis, and the toll taken on staff can have a ripple effect through an organisation.
Your safety director can find resources such as the Railway Mental Health Charter on our mental health webpages.
