Train accident at Richmond station in Sydney
Safety and risk management is the major component of achieving a successful safety management system (Glendon, Clarke & McKenna, 2016). Safety management system is required to identify and assess the risks associated with potential hazards .It also involves development of effective methods and approach for the mitigation of the problems associated with safety management .Many accidents occurs every year in Australia due to breach of safety measures resulting in several death and injuries. This report discusses about one such incident of Train accident that took place in Sydney, a city in Australia (Richmond train crash: passengers injured at Sydney station. , 2018). The paper identifies and analyzes the breach of safety measures due to which the accident took place in Sydney, Australia. The paper further discusses the change in safety management practices taken by the government and the authorities concerned .The paper detail about the implementation of the changed practices that were taken by the concerned authorities after the severe accident. The change in safety measure practices was triggered after the train accidents, which caused both losses of life as well as property.
The paper will give a short account of the need of safety and risk management and understand the need to apply safety management principles. The report would discuss about the train accident that took place in Sydney, Australia. It will give account of the happening as reported by the witnesses present at the railway station. The paper would try to address the breach of safety management and measures that resulted in the accident causing injuries to several people. The paper will also highlight the new safety measure and changed practices undertaken by the concerned authorities after the mishap (Havârneanu, Burkhardt & Paran, 2015). The report will give an outline about how the changes to the policy were implemented.
The Safety Management System provides a organized management proposal or approach to mitigate safety risks in the operations. The Safety Management System comprises of four functional attributes. The components of safety management system include Safety Policy, Safety Promotion, Safety Risk Management (SRM) and Safety Assurance. Safety management is important, as without safety management approaches and principles it would lead to injuries, loss of life as well as property. The Australasian railway association established The Rail Industry safety Standards Board (RISSBB) that is responsible for implementation and management of standards of rail industry. It also manages the guidelines, codes of practices of the Australian rail industry. The primary objective of the RISSB is to develop a risk model for the operation of Australian rail environment, which is based on data, and other aspects that would improve the safety measures and improve efficiency (Who We Are – Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board. , 2018). It also provides technical advice and support role of railway industry to follow the model for rail safety in Australia. RISSB works in collaboration with the Australian rail industry with the objective of maintaining safety practices all over the country.
Investigation and findings
A severe train accident took place in Richmond railway station in Sydney located in New South Wales, Australia. The incident took place on 22nd January 2018 when the train crashed into the train buffer stop while it was trying to slow down to stop at the station. The train crushed the hydraulic buffer of the platform and the carriages concertinaed together (Guziur, 2016).The impact also resulted in partial derailment. Sixteen people were injured as the result of the accident. The witnesses reported that the passengers were flying through the air as the carriages of the train were splattered with blood of the injured passengers. The list of injured people included two train employees. The injured people were immediately taken to the nearby hospital. The injuries included fractures and bleeding. However, no fatal injuries were reported officially. The rescue work was done in full swing with three rescue helicopters and seventeen ambulance crews attending the injured people in the site of the mishap. There were bloods everywhere near the site of accident making it a complete blood bath. The casualties also included two aged people. The driver of the train suffered minor injuries whereas the train guards suffered facial and chest injuries. Paramedical team went to the site of accident and treated the injured people .Out of the injured people two had serious injuries so they were taken to the nearby Westmead hospital. Some reports also stated that three people were trapped inside the train who were rescued by the rescue team.
The Office of Transport Safety of Australia, Australian Transport Safety Bureau and Office of National Rail Safety Regulator investigated the accident that took place in Richmond station in Sydney. The driver Mr. Mittal has been removed from the duties of the driver after this accident. The initial report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau revealed that the driver involved in the accident, Mr. Mittal was found to be fully qualified, aware of the route, experienced and he was passed as medically fit. It was also reported that there were no signs of contaminants in the rails (Saat et al 2014). According to the report, it was suggested that speed was not the issue during the occurrence of the incident. However, the report failed to shed any light on the possible cause of the accident. Australia Transport Safety Bureau would continue further investigations about the maintenance history of train, warning systems as well as brakes of the train, performance of the crew and the conditions of the track (Oswald & Sutherland, 2016). From the early reports, it has been proved that there were no issues with the train or any other mechanical failure. The reports indicates that the brakes of the train were proper functional however the driver failed to apply the brakes at the right time as a result the train collided with the buffer stop barrier at the platform . The driver involved in the incident has been relieved of his duties as a driver by the concerned authorities (Naweed, 2013). This is a case of breach of safety measures from the part of the driver, the result of the train accident was due to human error, and no other issues disrupted the working of the driver. There was no issue of signals present near the platform and issues related to windscreen or sun-affecting vision of driver was also not reported (Nimje, Bhalerao, & Khode, 2016). Proper safety and risk management measures would have prevented the accident and several individuals would not have to face the consequences.
Policy changes and safety measures
The Richmond train accident was deemed as a severe incident as breach of safety measures resulted in the catastrophic incident leading to injuries to sixteen people. After the mishap, the concerned authorities recommended that the speed limit of the train should be reduced from 50 kilometer per hour to 25 kilometers per hour in future. Another major change, which was undertaken after the Richmond accident, was that the signal present at the Richmond station has been modified. The signal present at the Richmond station now will be able to trigger a brake application when the train is speeding. The experts recommended the installation of the braking device thirteen years before, post the fatal Waterfall derailment incident that took place in New South Wales (Alian, Baker & Wood, (2016). However, the Australian rail authority installed the braking device only after this Richmond station train accident. The Australian rail authority is also thus responsible for the negligence towards safety management measures, which lead to the accident at the Richmond station.
The new modified signal system will add sound information in addition to the visual signal information (OGASA, 2015). In case of an emergency like collision with any barrier or if there is a change in track, an alarm will be triggered by the signal which should be responded within five seconds. If the signal is not responded the emergency brake will be triggered this will prevent any accident from collision which occurred in this case of accident in Sydney (Morant, Larsson-Kråik, & Kumar, 2016)..
Conclusion
From the above case study in the report, it can be concluded that the train accident that took place in Richmond station at Sydney was a result of breach of security measures. The accident resulted in several injuries of people and lead to loss of rail property. The Australian government was prompt to make a thorough investigation of the case and took some practice measures that would minimize any further chances of any accident. The concerned authorities of Australia implemented these safety practices or measures immediately. However, if these safety measures had been implemented before and the safety measures had not been breached, it would not have led to the horrifying incident that took place at Sydney.
References
Alian, S., Baker, R. G., & Wood, S. (2016, September). Rural casualty crashes in NSW: a comparison of two major arterial roads and two main highways. In Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference (p. 13p).
Glendon, A. I., Clarke, S., & McKenna, E. (2016). Human safety and risk management. Crc Press.
Guziur, P. (2016). Design parameters of buffer stops. Acta Polytechnica CTU Proceedings, 5, 17-21.
Havârneanu, G. M., Burkhardt, J. M., & Paran, F. (2015). A systematic review of the literature on safety measures to prevent railway suicides and trespassing accidents. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 81, 30-50.
Morant, A., Larsson-Kråik, P. O., & Kumar, U. (2016). Data-driven model for maintenance decision support: A case study of railway signalling systems. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, 230(1), 220-234.
Naweed, A. (2013). Psychological factors for driver distraction and inattention in the Australian and New Zealand rail industry. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 60, 193-204.
Nimje, M. R., Bhalerao, S. V., & Khode, B. V. (2016). Identification of Railway track using RFID Application. International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering, 2(9), 231-234.
OGASA, M. (2015). Latest Technology towards Improvement of Rail-vehicle Safety. Quarterly Report of RTRI, 56(2), 77-81.
Oswald, J. A., & Sutherland, D. W. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,296,379. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Richmond train crash: passengers injured at Sydney station. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/22/sydney-train-accident-passengers-trapped-and-injured-at-richmond-station
Saat, M. R., Werth, C. J., Schaeffer, D., Yoon, H., & Barkan, C. P. (2014). Environmental risk analysis of hazardous material rail transportation. Journal of hazardous materials, 264, 560-569.
Who We Are – Rail Industry Safety and Standards Board. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.rissb.com.au/who-we-are/
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