Even when the train drives itself, the driver remains responsible for closing the doors and dispatch: UK rail investigators on a passenger trapped and dragged at Ealing Broadway

Event date / reported

Evidence stage

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Where this applies

An investigation by the UK's independent rail accident investigator into a passenger whose hand was trapped in a train's doors and who was dragged along the platform. It states that in automatic train operation mode the driver remains responsible for closing the train's doors, dispatching the train and initiating its start when leaving a station, and that there is no other member of staff on the train; it finds that the train's door system did not detect the trapped hand, and recommends that the operator evaluate options including technologies to detect thin objects such as fingers and hands trapped in doors. The recommendation uses 'should' and binds no one; this is one accident on one line.

What this means

What it does not yet show

One accident on one line; the recommendation to add detection technology is not a requirement, and it does not show how dispatch is done elsewhere.

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