The latest full report to be released by the RAIB is in respect of an incident on 6th February 2017 when a woman got part of her coat trapped in a door on the Docklands Light Railway at Bank Station.
The woman got part of her coat trapped in the closing doors as she alighted from the train and the train then started to pull away. She was unable to release her coat from the closed door but managed to partially take off her coat before it was dragged from her as the train departed.
The incident happened because the part of the coat trapped was too small to be detected by the obstacle detection system. The design of the door nosing rubbers also meant that a relatively high pull force was required to remove the coat. All DLR trains have a member of staff on board but in this instance he was unaware the coat was trapped as his position when dispatching the train meant he was dependent on a CCTV system to observe the doors but defects in this system he was unable to observe the door of the train at which the incident happened.
Three recommendations have been made:
* Review the design of door nosing rubbers with a view to reduce the forces needed to remove trapped objects
* The specification for new trains to be procured shortly gives adequate consideration to the safety learning from this investigation in relation to pull-out forces.
* Improve processes for the management of platform observation equipment
In addition to these recommendations the RAIB repeated a learning point for staff responsible for the dispatching of trains that door obstacle detection systems are not always able to detect small objects and it is vital that a final visual safety check is made before departure.
* The full RAIB report can be viewed at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/645867/R122017_170921_Bank.pdf.