A woman who tried to board the train with the doors closed got stuck and dragged along the platform at nearly 8 hours per minute, a new report says.
CCTV spotted the woman initially disembarking at Wood Street station before attempting to board again – after the closing sequence had begun.
She placed her hands between the closed doors, but instead of opening them, they closed around her fingers and locked.
The train then started to depart from the platform, with the train driver later saying he didn’t know the woman was trapped and believed she was pressing the “open door” button to try and get on the train.
It traveled about 20 meters and reached a speed of 7.6mph, before the driver noticed the woman running along the platform and stopped the train.
The incident, reported by the Railway Accident Investigation Branch, was caused by “train drivers not appreciating passengers in unsafe positions” when making decisions to run trains.
The RAIB was informed that the passenger was not injured and left the station after speaking with the driver.
While the passenger doors on board have an obstacle detection system, designed to reopen the door if an obstacle is detected, the system only works on objects thicker than 30mm.
Objects that are thinner – such as fingers – or of a non-rigid nature, such as bag straps, are not necessarily detected by the system and may still become trapped in closed and locked doors.
For this reason, drivers are warned that although the doors may close completely, this does not always mean a safe departure.
Recreate the images seen in the driver’s cabin
The situation is similar to a number of other “trap and pull” cases previously investigated by the RAIB.
In 2013, a woman was dragged along the Newcastle train station after her wrist got stuck in a closed door – leaving her with severe bruising.
In 2015, an unidentified driver of a woman got stuck in the door of a train carriage in Hayes and Harlington, dragging her along the platform and injuring her to the head and back.
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In 2018, a woman was dragged through Bushey station when her wrist got stuck in the locked door of a departing train. She was able to stand upright but suffered a minor injury to her forearm.
A dog was dragged to death in 2019 after its head got stuck in the door of a train and it was dragged off the platform.
