Terrifying ‘near miss’ on train line near Athlone

An Iarnród Éireann employee who was patrolling a section of railway line outside Athlone in October 2023 during heavy fog only stepped clear of an oncoming train travelling at 126km/h “two to three seconds” before the train passed by.

The terrifying incident - during which the rail employee saw the lights of the train, but did not hear it - is one of just eight near misses recorded across the country by the Railway Accident Investigation Unit (RAIU) in its latest report, which covers a period of three years.

The near miss occurred at an area known as Clonnydonnin, in Castledaly, on a section of single line betweern Portarlington in Laois and Athlone, and the report into the incident details how the employee stepped off the railway line onto an adjacent siding, which the report noted was “not a position of safety”.

At the start of the track patrol being carried out by the Iarnrod Éireann patrol ganger at Clonnydonnin, fog was present, but as the patrol progressed fog conditions “became worse to the point that visibility was poor” according to the RAIU report. The driver of the approaching train only saw the patrol ganger “as they moved clear of the line.”

The findings of the report into the series of near misses over the past three years has prompted the investigation unit to issue Iarnród Éireann with an urgent safety advice notice, recommending that immediate action be taken to protect workers accessing train lines. They state that a safe system of work “cannot be achieved” for staff working alone without a lookout on almost 50% of the rail network.

The 24-page report from the RAIU concluded that Iarnród Éireann was not discharging its duties fully under both the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Railway Safety Act 2005, and called on the company to immediately cease the practice of staff patrolling track alone where minimum sighting distances cannot be met.

Among the five recommendations outlined in the report is one calling on Iarnród Éireann to review its track inspection methods to introduce “technological/mechanised systems” with a view to eliminating or minimising the need for track parolling. Where staff must access the live railway “effective safety measures (technological/ mechanised systems) should be implemented to eliminate/ minimise track worker exposure to railway hazards” the report states.

Although the report states that “no injuries were reported” as a result of the eight near misses recorded, the RAIU said these incident pose “a serious risk to members of staff on the railway line who could be hit by trains, causing injuries or fatalities” to one or more members of staff.

The report also noted that almost 10% of the existing rail network has quarter-mile sections classified as “very high risk” and an additional 37% classified as “high risk” in relation to sighting distance, availability of safe positions and train frequency.

In relation to discharging its duties fully under both the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Railway Safety Act 2005, the Railway Accident Investigation Unit report found that Iarnród Éireann has not reduced the risks to staff to a level that is “as low as resonably practicable” by failing to provide a place of work that is “safe and without risk to health”; failing to adequately control and mitigate the “known hazards” associated with track patrolling and by accepting “an avoidable level of risk” in relation to track patrolling.