Railway worker escapes being hit by 85mph train by seconds
A railway worker missed being hit by an 85mph train by seconds after a line was wrongly left open, says a new report.
The Arriva Trains Wales train crashed into a welding trolley the man had been working on. He jumped off it with two or three seconds to spare.
The incident happened at the Bridgeway crossing near Shewsbury on 16 January 2014.
A Rail Accident Investigation Branch report said the worker, who advised the controller about which line to close, had been misled by paperwork.
According to the BBC, the report said: "The accident occurred because the trolley was placed on a line that had not been blocked to normal train operations."
"The controller of site safety had blocked the opposite line on the advice of the welder, who had been misled by the presentation of information in the paperwork describing the safety arrangements for the job.
"However, the welder later realised that the work was actually on the line that had not been blocked, but he still placed his trolley on that line believing that no train would approach because of engineering work taking place elsewhere in the area."
According to the Shropshire Star, the trolley was destroyed and the front of the train, going from Crewe to Shrewsbury, was badly damaged.
The welder escaped with minor injuries, and the three people on the train, the driver the conductor and one passenger, were unharmed.
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