An infrastructure firm has been told to review how it plans operations near rail lines after a worker was nearly hit by a train travelling at 104mph.
A report released last Thursday (17 April) by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) detailed the incident, which took place at Chiltern Green, Herts (pictured), between Harpenden and Luton Airport Parkway stations on 23 April last year.
The worker, who was testing telecommunications cables for Keltbray Infrastructure Services, stepped off an underbridge very close to the track as the train passed.
The RAIB recommended that Keltbray Infrastructure Services (acquired by private equity fund EMK Capital in August 2024 and now trading as Aureos Infrastructure Services) should “review and amend how it plans work on or near the line, so its staff can better understand how to manage and carry out the work they need to deliver”.
According to the RAIB, the train driver had already sounded the horn when they saw the worker on the bridge, before hitting the emergency brake.
“Once the train stopped, the driver reported the incident to the signaller, unsure as to whether the train had struck the track worker,” the accident investigation body said.
The worker had been rejoining their group after a welfare break and was unaware of any other way to walk back to the site.
Investigators found the person in charge had not arranged for the tester to safely leave and rejoin the group when taking a break.
The RAIB said the person in charge had previously taken the tester over the bridge using an informal and potentially unsafe system of work, using a route to the site of work which was not the one the project engineer planning the work had intended the group to use.
It said the person in charge had a “very limited role” in planning the work, and blamed unclear documents relating to walking to the work site.
The RAIB also found that the tester had crossed the bridge without an effective safe system of work in place, despite being aware of the risks in doing so.
However, the tester’s personal track safety competency and the associated rules for walking alone near the line did not prohibit them from crossing a structure with restricted clearance, the body added.
There were also no signs on the bridge warning it was a limited-clearance structure.
The RAIB recommended that Network Rail should record the status of its asset signs near tracks and plan a programme of maintenance for them, as well as installing them if they are needed in places with limited clearance.
Another RAIB recommendation was for Network Rail to “reduce the risks to railway staff due to warning signage not being fitted to structures with restricted clearance”.
The Rail Safety and Standards Board should review the signage requirements for those structures, the RAIB added.
Construction News contacted the RAIB and EMK Capital for further comment.