Transwatch “Fact Sheet” No. 2 - Safety

 

Back to Home Page

 

To inflate rail fatalities, he introduces trespassers which he assumes would cease with conversion. He also debits level crossing deaths wholly to railways.

Ø       He exposes his ignorance of trespass. It comprises those taking short cuts and a train spotting minority. The latter do not stand near enough to tracks to be killed - they would be unable to read loco N^os or take photos. In 40 years, I never heard of a spotter being killed. Inquests that I attended, or fatalities I investigated were all trespassers taking short cuts. If converted, such deaths would increase due to removal of barriers & more frequent vehicles for ‘trespassers’ to avoid, and consequential extra deaths due to sudden braking & swerving.

Ø       The Liverpool Street scheme (sheet 12) would endanger thousands passing between buses departing every 9 seconds.

Ø       Rail fatalities include workshop staff whose parallel is not included in road figures.

Ø       Bus station fatalities are excluded.

Ø       In his statistics, he includes accidents at level crossings, when the evidence is that they are mostly due to misconduct by road users and should therefore be debited to road transport, not railways. His Internet site shows that his inclusion of level crossing and trespasser accidents increases rail accident rate 10-fold. It totally distorts the picture.

 

Transfer to converted roads of some motor traffic on existing roads is assumed to cut deaths

Ø       He assumes that transfer from roads would cut road deaths. Noticeably, where ex-rail traffic would transfer to roads (see study, Sheet 3 rebuttal); no increased deaths are counted!

Ø       Accidents have occurred to pedestrians climbing fences of Bradford’s guided busway.

Ø       Increased speeds would follow a reduction of traffic on existing roads, causing greater risk to pedestrians & cyclists.

Ø       His bus/coach figures are from DfT sources that depend on estimates, which must be treated with caution. (See Railway Conversion – the impractical dream, page 153)

Ø       He assumes that all trespassers and rail engineering staff are killed by passenger trains, because he relates all to passenger travel. Some were killed by freight, engineering or test trains, whose parallels are excluded from his selective road figures. Others were killed by road vehicles crashing onto the track – for which there is no converse problem.

 

He excludes pedestrian casualties from existing road statistics: ‘who would not get onto converted railways’ - another delusion.

Ø       Rail fences don’t prevent trespass, vandal proof fences have yet to be invented.

Ø       He ignores pedestrians walking away from broken down buses, cars & lorries, as they do on motorways and other roads.

Ø       He also ignores those who use existing level crossings and would continue to do so in huge numbers.

Ø       He should look at TV documentaries recording police finding pedestrians walking on or crossing m-ways; pursuing suspects escaping across m-ways. (eg Sky programme Road Wars 10.7.09); and cyclists in separate incidents on the M6. Many will have seen pedestrians (aka trespassers) running across the M6, & motorists having crashed who run across the road.

 

 

‘Fact Sheet 2’ is absolutely worthless