Man Trapped in Train Door (Class 442)

[Evvy73]

Another story about someone getting trapped in a train door.

From the Brighton Argus: LINK

The article states that it was a Gatwick Express train, so I am assuming it was a 442.
The doors on a 442 can be a bit vicious in the way they swing out when opening and closing (rather than a normal 'slide' action on say a 377 or 319) but I still struggle to understand how he became trapped.

Interesting that the article finished by saying "The rail company conceded that there had been problems with the Gatwick Express train doors" - I thought that was more to do with them not closing, rather than trapping people!

Anyway, I thought this may be of interest to some people.

 

[tempests1]

Another story about someone getting trapped in a train door.

From the Brighton Argus: LINK

The article states that it was a Gatwick Express train, so I am assuming it was a 442.
The doors on a 442 can be a bit vicious in the way they swing out when opening and closing (rather than a normal 'slide' action on say a 377 or 319) but I still struggle to understand how he became trapped.

Interesting that the article finished by saying "The rail company conceded that there had been problems with the Gatwick Express train doors" - I thought that was more to do with them not closing, rather than trapping people!

Anyway, I thought this may be of interest to some people.

I imagine that the doors were going through the closing procedure as in the audibable alarm had sounded and the doors where starting to close when the passenger was trying to get on. If that is the case what do they expect! It basically said it all when Southern Trains allowed the train to continue in service as in if you try to enter the train whilst the doors are closing and get stuck dont moan and say the trains are defective!

 

[pendolino]

I imagine that the doors were going through the closing procedure as in the audibable alarm had sounded and the doors where starting to close when the passenger was trying to get on. If that is the case what do they expect! It basically said it all when Southern Trains allowed the train to continue in service as in if you try to enter the train whilst the doors are closing and get stuck dont moan and say the trains are defective!

Exactly this. If a passenger tries to get on board when the driver/conductor has pressed the 'doors close' button and the doors are starting to close, then he/she will get stuck between the doors. The train won't be able to move as it won't (or shouldn't, all being well) get interlock. Even if the driver puts up another door release, the doors won't automatically open - the passenger or someone else will have to press the 'door open' button, by which point they're starting to panic.

 

[Fincra5]

Basically it comes down to people being stupid, I see it everyday at various stations I dispatch from. You and/or platform staff blow the whistle, give it s few more seconds, shut the doors (or wait for tip); then some late runner comes charging towards the train at the closing doors.

 

[Daimler]

It does seem to be a bit of a non-story - passenger gets on as doors are closing, passenger gets stuck in doors, train is allowed to proceed once passenger has been 'freed'. What else would one expect?

Now, obviously most new trains have doors which automatically re-open when someone is trying to get on as they're closing, but this was hardly a safety risk nonetheless - it just meant someone had to free them off.

 

[ChrisCooper]

Safety would only come into it if either the force of the door closing was enough to cause injury, or if the train started to move with the person trapped. Really it sounds like the person came out of it unharmed and was never at any particular risk of hard.

One thing that makes me laugh is that 10 years ago we'd have been having stories about incidents with those "dangerous" slam door trains, which 99 times out of 100 were down to misuse. They are now all gone, to the point where perfectly useable trains were scrapped purely for having slam doors (312, to an extent VEPs) and even preserved slammers on the mainline have to have central locking or doors manually locked. Now everything south of the Thames has power doors, and we still get stories about incidents where people misuse them! If you choose to leap from a slam door train before it's stopped, you are asking to be injured, if you choose to try and board a power door train when the alarm is going, you are asking to be trapped.

 

[Geezertronic]

This sort of thing happens on the tube quite frequently. And I've seen a woman get her head clattered by a pair of doors on a 319 before because she wasn't paying attention to the beeping sound and was too busy saying goodbye to her friend

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I was surprised by the vigourous response of a passenger on a 319 a year or so ago when I was unable to get my bicycle fully on board. I had estimated that there was plenty room and plenty time. I had not correctly estimated that the majority of pax would remain clustered in the doorway!).
So the doors started to close and nearly half the rear wheel was still outside, but people seemed to look the other way and certainly weren't moving. The door closed and the bike was trapped.
With the speed of light, a seated passenger who must have seen all this and who understood the consequences, barged through the crowd and pulled the doors far enough apart to release the wheel by brute force.
I was very grateful, though I did think I could adequately pull it through the gap in the rubbers once the other commuters woke up to reality.

But I still wonder if that man had been in a similar situation once, or was / had been rail crew or in other front line service. What impressed me wasn't the force in pulling apart the doors, but the speed with which he pushed through the crowd of passengers who hadn't been willing to let me and bike on board. An impressive response!