Managing safety
Through Injury Prevention we are committed to eliminating injuries in the workplace and to our customers.
The UK Rail division Safety Committee, chaired by the UK Rail division Managing Director leads development of the safety programme. Each train operating company has its own safety committee supported by a cross company Safety Improvement Group that works to improve safety performance and promote consistency of approach across the division.
| UK rail safety performance 2007/08 compared to the previous 12 months | |
|---|---|
| All injuries per 1,000 employees per year | -17% |
| Lost time injuries (over 1 day) per 1,000 employees per year | -8% |
| Passenger injuries per million miles | 12% |
| SPADs per million miles | 16% |
There were no employee or passenger fatalities during the past 12 months. There were, however, a number of third party fatalities as a result of trespass or suicide. We continue to work with Network Rail to look at line access issues to help prevent these events.
Injuries to our staff also arise from physical assaults. We have zero tolerance to assaults in the workplace and continue to do everything we can to reduce their occurrence.
Rail passenger safety
Following a marked decease in our passenger injury rate last year we have seen a 12% rise this year. We attribute the upturn to weather conditions leading to an increase in slips, trips and falls and raised passenger volumes. As a result we are looking at the impact of passenger volumes on the risk to passenger injury. We are piloting the use of local risk assessments at all key stations. A particular emphasis is being placed on the role of station surfaces in causing injury. All companies have been issued with surface friction meters to assist them in this process.
We have endorsed the recommendations of a recent report by the Rail Safety and Standards Board that reviewed the issue of containment on board trains in the aftermath of an accident. The report recommends that breakable windows should cease to be a recognised method of escape for passengers and that laminated glass should be fitted throughout rail vehicles. We will seek where possible to fit laminated glass in our trains by the end of 2010 at a cost of around £8 million.
Our SPAD (Signals Passed at Danger) rate has also increased. The majority of SPADs are what the independent rail safety body (The Rail Safety and Standards Board) describes as low risk SPADs - events that could not result in a collision or injury to passengers. However, no SPAD is acceptable to us. Reducing SPADs remains a high priority.
We investigate each incident in depth to fully understand the causes. Follow-up actions are then identified and implemented. We have recently set up a worldwide review of best practice in reducing major risks, an initiative that will involve direct dialogue with high-risk industries. We hope to build on the experience of other sectors to develop a strategy that secures real improvements in performance.