As investigations continue, more details have now emerged regarding a serious incident which occured on the Manchester Metrolink system late on Friday 3rd July. It has now become clear that two trams were affected; one which derailed, and another which sustained damage after being attacked by people throwing stones at the tram.
An eyewitness has told the Manchester Evening News about just how terrifying this awful incident was. It would seem that the whole saga began over a man sitting at the St Werburgh’s Road tram stop was taunted by a gang of youths for having a ponytail (yes really!). After responding with verbal abuse, the male was pursued onto the next tram to arrive and some of the group then started a fight near to the front of the tram. Matters quickly escalated with another passenger getting involved, at first asking the gang to leave the tram and then becoming more involved and biting one of the group. Once the group were eventually forced off the tram, they continued to vent their aggression by pelting the vehicle with bottles and rocks, eventually succeeding in smashing windows. The emergency stop button was pressed leaving passengers lying on the floor of the vehicle.
Passengers were then transferred onto another tram after the Police arrived on the scene, some 45 minutes later, but it too became caught up in the drama when it derailed, almost certainly as a result of debris on the track. This may well have been the result of makeshift missiles being thrown at the first tram rather than a deliberate placing of objects on the track to derail a tram, although naturally this will be investigated fully by both the Police and Metrolink. Thankfully it is not thought that any severe injuries resulted from either mishap, although this is more down to luck than anything else. The group who caused the initial disruption have not been identified as yet and Police are still urging anyone who may be able to assist with their ongoing investigations to come forward, to ensure that those responsible can be punished for their disgraceful behaviour.
Don’t the trams and the stops have CCTV?
In a word, yes!
To help out,
tram stops do have CCTV – BUT – they do not record continously, they only start to record once the stations alarm have been pressed.
Or Metro staff control use the to monitor the station
Daft init ?
Mike
Mike, after some research I can confirm that all the tramstop CCTV cameras are recorded 24/7 continuously.
I see that the Police have released CCTV images of 5 suspects wanted for questioning, so this prooves the CCTV was recording at the time.
I would have thought the driver would alert Metro control!
Conductors trained in the martial arts, or better, armed police on late-night trams might deter actions like this. CCTV is just a way of making movies that show how the victim was abused (or becomes a ‘snuff movie’ when it records a murder), it is no use to prevent crime, and the police are so overstretched through government cuts that they can’t come until the criminals are long gone. I shall not be travelling on Manchester trams after dark.
Sadly, it is obvious that certain people cannot be trusted to behave themselves when unsupervised on public transport. Serious incidents occur on the local bus network, such as assaults by young males on lone male travellers. The solution may be to have one or two temporary conductors/inspectors as in the old days, primarily to check that everyone has a valid ticket (to deter the many fare evaders) and to eject trouble makers. Inevitably there would be costs of such a scheme, but it may well have to be considered in the light of last Friday’s incident and others over the last few years. The very presence of Metrolink officials, say from 8 pm to midnight, Fridays to Sundays just might keep some semblance of order and deter the all too common swearing and loutish behavior.
Now if I had my Jack Russell Terrier with me and an incident arose …………
But they won’t let you take your little peace-keeper on the Metrolink Frank so it’ll have to be up to them to sort it out!
Hope the next time I use a tramway no one taunts me because I wear a ponytail and I’m male.