C40/​1997R A main­te­nance worker pushed over by a shunt­ing en­gine at Arola, No­vem­ber 20, 1997

20.11.1997

On 20 November 1997, a shunting engine was proceeding from Varttius towards Kontiomäki. A five-man team was removing snow from the switches and from between the rails before the Arola stop. Two of the men were working next to the main track and three next to a side track. None of the members of the team had realized that the engine would turn to the side track at the switch. It is true that the three members of the team who were working next to this side track had observed the engine, which was proceeding at a slow speed, but the men had continued to remove the snow with their backs to the approaching engine. The maintenance workers had not heard at all that the engine changed to the side track, and the middle of the three men, who were working in line, was hit by the engine.

The engineer had already earlier seen the men working alongside the side track, but already a long time before the engine arrived at the switch the engineer lost visual contact with the men. The engineer did not notice the accident, and instead continued to the Arola stop.

In the accident, the maintenance worker’s foot was badly injured, and he received also some other bruises. He is presumably not permanently injured. The ambulance arrived 35 minutes after the accident.

The regulations provide the use of a safety man. This was not done.