Man died after being hit by four Tube trains when he tripped off platform

A passenger was killed after he was struck by four trains at an east London Underground station before being found.

The accident happened at Stratford Underground station on Boxing Day 2023 after a passenger fell onto the tracks and out of sight.

He was hit four times before trains were stopped, a report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch found.

It added that a ‘reduced alertness or distraction’ of tain operators could have played a role in why trains were not stopped sooner.

The passenger was previously named as Brian Mitchell, a 72-year-old pensioner originally from Edinburgh who was living in London.

Mr Mitchell was sitting on a platform bench at about 2.45pm before he stood up and ‘immediately stumbled forwards and fell from the platform onto the adjacent track,’ the report said.

Unable to get to safety, he ‘lay on the track undiscovered for around 5 minutes before being struck by an arriving train, which then stopped normally in the platform.’

He was then struck by a further three trains as they entered the station platform and travelled ‘through the location where the passenger was lying.’

At this point, Mr Mitchell was ‘fatally injured.’

When the pensioner ‘stumbled forwards’ and fell, he was alone on the platform so there was ‘no intervention made to prevent the first train from arriving,’ the investigators found.

The driver of the first train failed to see him on the tracks ‘possibly because their level of attention was reduced due to the use of automatic train operation,’ the report said, adding that the operator may also have been distracted by the presence of another operator on the platform.

The operator of the third arriving train ‘saw something’ on the tracks, but they ‘did not recognise what they saw as being a person,’ making the consequences of the accident ‘more severe,’ the RAIB said.

To make matters worse, a fourth inbound train was not stopped by a member of staff on the platform ‘even though the assistant was by now aware that a person was on the track.’

The report said: ‘Although the operator of the fourth inbound train had independently recognised that there was a person on the track, they did not stop their train.

‘The train operators working the trains in the outbound direction were not aware of the passenger because the passenger was underneath their respective trains before they departed.’

Why was the pensioner not found earlier?

Police officers were reportedly alerted at about 3.30pm – around 45 minutes after Mr Mitchell fell.

The RAIB found that the operators may have been distracted.

The report concluded that the ‘repetitive nature of the task under automatic train operation may lead to a state of underload, resulting in the attentional capacity of train operators being diminished.

‘This can increase the likelihood of effects on performance such as reduced alertness or distraction,’ it continued.

Train operators may also have been ‘getting ready to leave their train before it has stopped’ at terminus stations like Stratford, meaning they may ‘not be focusing on tasks relating to the operation of the train.’

While the risk of a passenger falling from the platform at Stratford Underground station had been previously identified, the mitigating risk controls were ‘not sufficiently effective in this instance to prevent the accident from occurring,’ the report concluded.

To prevent further incidents, the London Underground Limited was urged to consider the use of technology that can ‘detect if a passenger is in a dangerous position and intervene or warn as necessary to stop an approaching or departing train.’

It also recommended a review of environmental, organisational and job-related factors relating to automatic train operation to assess ‘how underload may affect train operators.’

It comes after TfL has rolled out a trial of artificial technology at some London Underground stations.

The AI tech, which is still in its testing phase, is designed to distinguish a passenger on tracks from the usual train movements.

Lili Matson, the chief safety officer at TfL, said: ‘Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Mr Mitchell, who sadly died at Stratford Tube station on 26 December 2023.

‘We welcome the recommendations from the RAIB’s independent investigation into this incident, which align with the findings of our own internal investigation, and work has already begun to implement them.

‘We will always strive to learn from incidents and improve operational safety, including by ensuring relevant regulatory bodies are immediately informed, carrying out thorough and extensive internal investigations and prioritising taking action on any recommendations from any review. While serious injuries on our network are rare, we are undertaking a huge range of work to eradicate such incidents and make the network even safer for everyone.’

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