RAIL union RMT has warned that passengers will be put at risk if conductors are axed from train services as it highlights cases of passengers trapped in doors and dragged along platforms where no guard was on duty.
The report by RMT comes as hundreds of ScotRail conductors prepare to walkout on Tuesday in the first of a series of planned strikes in protest at fears conductors jobs will be phased out.
Although ScotRail management has stressed there are no proposals to do so, RMT balloted its members for industrial action after failing to secure guarantees that the number of driver-only operations would not be extended during the franchise term.
Since January 2011, the industry's accident investigations body, the RAIB, has recorded 10 serious incidents involving passengers being killed or injured on platforms.
Most cases involved passengers whose limbs, bags or clothing had become trapped in the train doors, and who were then injured as they were dragged along the platform. One woman suffered "life-changing injuries" after falling off the edge of a platform as a train was leaving.
Eight out of the 10 incidents involved driver-only trains, with no conductor on duty.
RMT fears these will be the "tip of the iceberg" if the recommendations of the 2011 McNuty Report - which foresaw driver-only operations becoming the norm - are enacted.
RMT General Secretary, Mick Cash, said: “The dossier sets out a range of examples from across the country that detail the real consequences for the travelling public of axing and undermining the safety-critical role of the guard.
“The examples are horrific – but the current moves, in the wake of the Government-backed McNulty report that made DOO the default option on our trains - mean that they will be the tip of the iceberg if we don’t halt and reverse the drive to take out the guards."
The dossier also highlighted instances where a conductor had intervened to help passengers in an emergency, such as when a ScotRail service derailed and was left hanging over a
50ft embankment at the Falls of Cruachan in Argyll. Train staff led passengers to safety and helped extinguish a small on-board fire.
More than half of ScotRail customers already travel on a train where the driver is responsible for opening and closing the doors, while a second member of staff collects tickets and handles safety tasks - an arrangement dating back to 1986.
ScotRail managing director Phil Verster has previously dismissed safety fears.
He said: "Millions of people have taken journeys on trains that have had the doors safely opened and closed by the driver. It just makes no sense to say that something that has been working for 30 years is now suddenly unsafe.
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