Rail Users Ireland Forum - Incident at Bray this morning

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Incident at Bray this morning

Did anyone witness this incident this morning? Seemed serious enough thankfully driver only had minor injuries

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/205656...#post_77448140

Also whats the purpose of a driver having a "track detonator"

It's standard equipment. If the train fails, the driver will deploy them at certain distances behind the train to prevent a rear-end collision if there is a problem with the signalling and another train is somehow allowed into the same section as his one.

Every driver and guard carries quite a few for safety procedures to be placed at 1/4 and 1 mile behind a train following an accident if the signalman cannot be contacted or is unable to confirm trains stopped

The driver probably dropped his bag by accident and one or more went off

irish rail have commented on it!
http://www.irishrail.ie/cat_news.jsp?i=4504&p=116&n=237

Quote:

06 March 2012

Iarnród Éireann has commenced an investigation into an incident in Bray this morning in which a DART driver was injured. Other agencies have also been advised, including the Health and Safety Authority, the Railway Accident Investigation Unit, and the Railway Safety Commission.

At 08.09hrs this morning, after the DART driver had entered the driver’s cab of the 08.00hrs Greystones to Malahide DART service, the detonators in the driver’s kit bag exploded. The driver was injured. There were no other injuries.

The train was taken out of service at Bray as there was damage to the cab, and to allow for investigation of the incident. The emergency services attended the scene, and the driver was treated in hospital for his injuries, which includes assessment of impact of the incident on his hearing, and stitches to his hand.

Detonators are used in railway operations as part of the safety regime, and are placed on railway lines by drivers and other staff, and detonated by the pressure of a train passing over them, emitting a loud bang which serves to alert drivers to specific issues.

Interestingly staff in Northern Ireland seem to use a special box, a much smaller version of what you see used for concert pa gear, the box is marked as containing explosives

It looks like bag dropped or a very sensitive detonator set off as a result of some movement, problem is as the detonators come in a pack stacked on top of each other if one goes off likely the pressure will set the rest off

A driver would have at least 10 in his/her bag

Are these detonators carried around is those have leather satchels with the brass rivets that all drivers seem to carry? This seems a very casual way to handle explosives that are obviously capable of causing injury to passengers and staff.

Just to note that pretty much any explosive is much more dangerous in a confined space than out in the open. The more confined the greater the danger - some explosives will just burn and not explode if they aren't in a confined space like a gun breech or a shell.

In this case, while there does appear to be physical injury, most of the energy will be designed to dissipate as noise, which won't have been kind in the cab.

Quote:

53 The DART train was moved from the platform where the incident took place to another platform to allow trains to use the station; subsequently the scene of the explosion was significantly disturbed by IÉ staff before being declared a crime scene by the Garda

Tut tut, surely?