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Welcome to issue 7 of Rail Safety
The seventh edition of Rail Safety News is now available. Readers will be aware that the South Australian Parliament is considering new rail safety regulations. When this bill is passed, it will become law .Most Australian jurisdictions are likely to pass legislation, with December 2012 is the start date. This is a difficult task. When state legislatures adopt implementing legislation, things will change. TSV is collaborating with the National Project Office to ensure the success of the project. think the regulatory processes would go well, and that Most critically, there will be no decrease in safety supervision.
Safeworking – track side worker safety
In 2011/2012, track side worker safety was a major priority of TSV’s Rail Safety Compliance Program. As a result, a number of focused safety audits have been conducted, concentrating on safe working regulations for infrastructure projects and the occupational health and safety requirements of train operators.
This focus came as a consequence of TSV’s research of reportable events, which revealed an increasing trend of occurrences in the Occurrence Notification – Standard One (ON-S1) category ‘Safeworking Irregularity/Breach.’ A closer look at this pattern indicated a rise in trackside worker safety violations.
The more significant occurrences relate to:
- near misses with track workers/equipment
- Work begins before proper protection is in place.
- conflicting train/track authorities
- protection removed prior to work completion.
The rise in near-misses involving railroad employees and equipment is particularly concerning. Work was being done with simply lookout protection (administrative control to handle hazards) on a regular basis when these accidents occurred.
In several of these circumstances, machinery were operate very next to the track, posing a risk of fouling the mainline.
Rail Safety Tips and Facts
It’s train time at any hour!
Because they seldom see a train at the highway-rail crossings they pass across every day, many drivers pay little or no attention. They are unaware that freight trains do not follow a defined timetable and can be found in any location at any time, travelling in any direction! ALWAYS EXPECT A TRAIN at all crossings, especially those you are most acquainted with(safely access the rail corridor)!
Trains are unable to swerve!
When locomotive engineers spot a car or person on the tracks in their train’s path, they can’t swerve out of the way since they don’t have a steering wheel. The train merely travels along the rails. Only the warning siren and emergency brakes are available to engineers. A train in emergency braking will be stop, but not in time to avoid the collision
Trains are unable to come to a complete halt in a short period of time.
Did you know that stopping a 100-car freight train that weighs between 12 and 20 million pounds in emergency braking takes over a mile? Yes, exactly! That’s at least 18 football fields of distance covered before coming to a complete halt! What is the reason for such a long journey? Every wheel has brakes, but it takes that long for all of those brakes to overcome the train’s massive weight. The engineer cannot surrender to you, therefore always yield to the train.
Take care not to be fooled by the optical illusion!
When observed from a minor angle at the crossing, a locomotive looks to be travelling considerably slower than we expect due to its enormous size (17 feet high and 10 feet broad). This effect is created by the combination of size and angle. The train tracks contribute to the illusion as well. The rails’ parallel lines converge toward the horizon, fooling our imaginations into believing the train is further away than it is. When these illusions are present, it is extremely hard to correctly evaluate the speed of a train. The train will arrive at the crossing ahead of schedule.
Rail Safety in the Future | Training & Development
One of the most successful methods to increase rail safety, dependability, and efficiency is to invest in staff.Only by ensuring that every element of the network, from station to track, equipped with the essential skills via ongoing training and development,.
Sharp training provides comprehensive railway safety training throughout the australia . We are experts in the field of health and safety, so you can be certain that you are in good hands. Our Railway Safety courses will provide you the information and education you need to guarantee that you understand the safe working procedures employed in the australia, which will keep everyone those around you safe when working near on the line.
Please visit rail safety training for more information about the Rail safety training
