Arriva Rail London’s Ryan Dearlove looks at the role of the trainer in signal sighting.
This is a crucial question since poor signal sighting has been in the causal chains of many SPADs.
You can’t hope to avoid a SPAD if you can’t see the signal clearly or in time. It sounds obvious, but poor signal sighting has been in the causal chains of many SPADs, some of them fatal.
Most of the reports and recommendations into these incidents refer to the sighting of the signal by the driver. But has anyone ever thought about the other people who might be in the cab with that driver – an instructor, for example?
Consider a trainee driving a route for the first or second time in the company of an instructor. The train passes the usual double yellow and single yellow aspects without a problem, the trainee reducing speed as expected.
Then comes a signal sequence on a left-hand curve. The instructor identifies that the next signal is now displaying a double yellow and indicates such to the trainee.
The trainee continues to maintain speed, but at this point the instructor becomes distracted. The double yellow is in fact a read across to the adjacent Up line. The signal applying to this service is red and is passed at danger.
From the angle the instructor could see – via a standing position on the non-driving side – the signal for the Up line looked like it applied. But, do we consider different positions in the cab when we are sighting signals or introducing new stock?
The train in this example featured a traditional left-hand driving position, but some stock is now being introduced with right-hand and central seating positions.
It is vital that trainers have full route knowledge for the route they are training. Do you assess the risks raised by the article in terms of communication and training to those who need to view signals from non-optimal positions?
Are you clear on the roles and responsibilities of the person driving and the other person, taking a fair culture approach to any errors, rather than looking to apportion blame?
RSSB has gathered signal sighting best practice and produced a SPAD good practice guide. You can also check out Justin Willett’s article on signal sighting in Right Track 35.