A TRAIN driver came within three seconds of being struck by an Inverness-bound passenger train travelling at 105mph after a trainee signaller mistakenly left a track open.
The driver of the Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) service was forced to lie on the ground between two tracks to avoid being hit by the oncoming train in a near-miss incident on August 3 this year.
A report by the Rail Accident Investigation Board (RAIB) said the driver was unhurt but that the case highlighted the importance of drivers and signallers repeating "safely critical" information back to one another.
The incident began after the 7.55am Virgin service from Inverness to London King's Cross Virgin broke down at Kyle Beck, 12 miles north of York station. The driver contacted the on-duty signaller at York to request that trains on the two adjacent lines be stopped temporarily while he got out of the cab to carry out tests on the train's wheels.
The signaller was a trainee working under supervision, but he had not previously granted a line blockage to protect a driver needing to examine their train except in training scenarios.
The RAIB report notes that communication between the driver and signaller broke down, with the driver assuming that his request had been acted upon and the signaller believing that the driver was waiting for him to phone back.
The report states: "The driver asked the trainee signaller if he had been granted the line blockage. The trainee signaller replied that he would call the driver back, without positively stating that the line blockage had not been granted.
"The driver did not repeat back the fact that he needed to wait for the signaller to call him back. It is possible that the driver may not have heard what the trainee signaller said or that he had misunderstood what he was being told.
"As a result, the driver and the trainee signaller did not reach a clear understanding about stopping trains on the adjacent lines, and the driver subsequently alighted from the driving cab of his train, incorrectly believing it was safe to do so."
As a result, the driver stepped out into the path of a Virgin service en route from London King's Cross to Inverness. At the time it was six and a half miles away, but CCTV footage shows that the driver first became aware of the oncoming train "approximately six seconds before it reached him".
The report adds: "He then lay down close to his train in the space between the down fast and up fast lines; he was lying on the ground with three seconds to spare."
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