UK - exceptional rail safety record

[John Ashworth]

From The Railway Magazine, April 2009, p 7:

2005-08 - a magnificent period for rail safety

Only one passenger has died in a British main line train in the last four years - and in 2008, there wasn't even a train crew fatality.

Those remarkable statistics (the 2008 one is unprecedented) have been released by the Rail Safety Standards Board and represent the positive side of the health & safety measures that have been implemented on the railways in recent years.

Even from other causes, only five people died on railway property last year - also an unprecedentedly low figure. Of those, two fell from platforms, two were hit on level crossings and one fell down an escalator. There were just three workforce fatalities away from trains.

The one passenger fatality in the last four years was the lady who died in the Lambrigg derailment in 2007.