Signs of respect: embodying the train driver–signal relationship to avoid rail disasters

Abstract

Train driving is a complex and dangerous activity. If a signal is passed at danger (SPAD), a driver experiences one of the most safety critical failure modes of rail. Train drivers are not only significantly emotionally and professionally impacted by SPADs that they have experienced; they are also affected by their potential occurrence. Using a mobilities approach, we identify SPAD risk reduction strategies that train drivers generate during dynamic interactive encounters with signals, between human/machine, time/space, structured movement/unstructured movement. Drivers form an intimate relationship whereby the signal is viewed with both reverence and contempt. Drivers anthropomorphise the signal, and predict SPAD potentiality aimed at outwitting the signal. We suggest that this human–signal interface offers new perspectives of SPADs, revealing that a signal means more than stop–caution–go.

Keywords:

• Anthropomorphism
• Human–signal interaction
• rail
• drivers
• safety

Notes

1. On 5 October 1999, a train driver failed to stop at a red signal at Ladbroke Grove in West London; instead, he accelerated past the signal to collide head-on with a high-speed train at speeds estimated to be at 130 mph (210 km/h). The SPAD cost thirty-one lives and resulted in over four hundred serious injuries. The reasons for the SPAD remain unknown, but it is difficult to conclude anything other than the signal, which was at red, was believed to show a green or amber proceed aspect.

2. “Cars” is a term used to describe carriages, so in this case, the train was comprised of two carriages.

3. ^“Overhead” refers to the overhead line that provides the train with electricity.

4. ^“Diagram” is a contraction of “schedule diagram”, and a rail industry term used to describe a timetable; in this case, it was a physical piece of paper.

5. “Vigilance” refers to a device in the train that performs regular vigilance checks and prompts the driver for a response with a light and auditory warning after an extended period of inactivity, usually 60 to 90 seconds. The driver has a few seconds to cancel it before the brakes on the train are automatically applied. These devices are intended to act a safety measure in the event of physiological breakdown (e.g. malaise, sleep).