C15/​1998R Worker run over by pas­sen­ger train lo­co­mo­tive at Varkaus, on Sep­tem­ber 14, 1998

14.09.1998

On 14 September 1998, a member of a concrete-gunning team repairing a drum under a railway was run over by a passenger train locomotive.

The shift of the four-person team was coming to its close, and the foreman had started to walk away from the site. Three workers remained on the site preparing for their leaving. When the fast train approached the site, one worker was on his knees by a tool kit, looking for wire. The engine driver of the train gave a loud acoustic signal, which the worker nevertheless failed to hear because of the noise from the machines. When his colleague tried to warn him, he stood up by the tool kit and was run over by the locomotive of the train. He died immediately as a result of his injuries.

The accident was a consequence of the site tools, equipment and devices being located close to the track without an adequately safe and easy access secured to the rest hut. Apparently it had become customary among the workers to use the easiest accessible route, which ran between the water tank of the site and the track. This route ran clearly closer to the track than the minimum corresponding safety distance admitted in the relevant regulations.

In order to improve the safety standard of different sites, Accident Investigation Board Finland recommends that the sites in the vicinity of the railway feature a structure-gauge marking realised by means of a band, sealing-off line, or preferably by a fixed railing.

Recommendation S122