network july 2016

JULY 2016THE MAGAZINE FOR OUR PEOPLE

Time out...All colleagues to take part in a 90-minute

session on driving safety

2NETWORK / JULY 2016

“In the past month we’ve lost another two people to road

traffic accidents. Since 2011 that makes 12 people who went to work one day and never made it home.

“These colleagues will never again enjoy the simple things we take for granted, like taking our children or grandchildren to the park, blowing off steam with friends on a night out, or tucking into a Sunday roast.

“For them it’s too late.”

Stand down for safety“These tragedies mean we are failing to achieve our safety vision – we are not getting everyone home safe every day.

“I want everyone in the business to stop work and stand down for approximately 90 minutes between 11 and 31 July, and to agree in your teams how we are going to stop this happening again.

July 2016

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On the cover: Since 2011, 12 colleagues have been killed on the roads. Across the business teams are being asked to hold safety stand down briefings to discuss safe driving.

“In the past year we have recorded 611 unsafe road acts among our workforce, from speeding to not wearing seat belts. When this happens people are breaking the Lifesaving Rules and putting themselves and others in harm’s way. Yet we have all agreed to follow these rules as part of our contract of employment.”

Always challenge“When it comes to it the only thing stopping a colleague from driving off without a seat belt on, or pushing the speed limit, is you. What you say to them in that moment could make the difference between life and death.

“I urge you to use these stand down sessions to agree how you will always challenge in the name of safety. And thank those who challenge you, they have your best interests at heart. Do this and you will always have my full support.”

Make these sessions count“Make sure you come out of these discussions ready to challenge and put into action the commitments you agree in your teams.

“In our high-performance culture, everyone can be a safety leader. We can all work together to prevent any more deaths, accidents and injuries from happening.”

Mark Carne Chief executive



CONTENTS4-5Speeding

Nadime Gauzee, principal technical officer, urges people to kill their speed, not other people

FACT:Speed is one of the main factors in fatal road accidents. Between 2013 and 2016, Network Rail drivers received 1,470 speeding prosecutions across Britain.

Almost half of these speeding offences occurred in 30mph zones.

6-7 Fatigue “We need to look after ourselves and each other,” urges Fiona Dolman, capacity planning director

FACT:Driver fatigue is a serious issue among those who drive for work. Around 300 people are killed as a result of drivers falling asleep at the wheel every year.

Research suggests that almost 20 per cent of accidents on major roads are sleep related.

8-9 Seat belts A year after a collision that could have killed him, Bora Bekir, signalling and telecoms operative, stresses the importance of buckling up

FACT:The Department for Transport estimates that front seat belts save more than 2,200 lives a year in Britain. Over the past three years at Network Rail there have been 15 recorded instances of people not wearing a seat belt.

10-11Home safe Read about Network Rail’s work to get everyone home safe every day

FACT:Network Rail’s Home Safe Plan is made up of 22 projects all aimed at improving safety for its people.

Find out more about the Lifesaving Rules at safety.networkrail.co.uk

Speeding


Nadime Gauzee, principal technical officer, was a passenger in a speeding car that crashed. His brush with death has changed his life

‘‘ MY SEAT

BELT SAVED

MY LIFE’’


“I was young and got into a car with my mates. It was late at night and the driver was doing

between 90 and 100mph. None of us thought about the consequences of this – the roads were clear and we didn’t think anything would happen.

“At the end of the road there was a sharp turn and my friend lost control of the car. In an attempt to avoid hitting some trees he used the handbrake to slow down. The car started to shake and flipped over, plunging down an embankment, crushing the car with each roll.

“I was in the passenger seat and as the car was tumbling down my window smashed and my head hit the concrete,

The facts1 It is against the law to drive faster than

the speed limit for the type of road and type of vehicle. The speed limit is the absolute maximum but it doesn’t mean it’s safe to drive at this speed in all conditions.

2 In 2013, Britain saw more than 3,000 people killed or seriously injured in crashes where speed was a factor.

3 The risk of death is approximately four times higher when a pedestrian is hit at 40mph than it is at 30mph.

4 Fatal accidents are four times more likely on rural ‘A’ roads than on urban ‘A’ roads.

cracking my skull. I was rushed to hospital – I had lost so much blood from my head that I needed a transfusion. The doctor said that if I hadn’t been wearing my seat belt I would have died.

“I couldn’t believe that little bit of material had saved me. It made me think about what would have happened to my body if I hadn’t been wearing it. I still had a horrific injury even though I was wearing it and that’s because we were travelling way too fast.

“The experience changed my life and how I looked at driving. I was immediately much more careful when getting into vehicles and being safer when going from A to B – both when I’m driving and when I’m a passenger.

“If you’re in a car and someone is driving too fast, at home or at work, tell them to slow down and be safe – that might be the only chance you have before something terrible happens.” n

Kill your speed, not someone else Over the past three years, Network Rail drivers have received 1,470 speeding prosecutions from the police. Almost half – 49 per cent – of these offences occurred in 30mph zones. Some of the speeding breaches included:

70

60

50

40

3026mph over the limit





56

66

78

83

101Find out more about the Lifesaving Rules at safety.networkrail.co.uk

“ The window smashed and my head hit the concrete,” Nadime Gauzee

Always obey the speed limit and wear a seat belt

EYES WIDE SHUT

Fatigue

“We are not superhuman,” says Fiona Dolman, capacity planning director




“I was doing my usual one-hour drive to work. About 45 minutes into the journey,

driving at 70mph in the outside lane, I fell asleep at the wheel. It was only for a moment and I regained control of my car just as it was veering toward the barrier. I rolled down the windows, put the radio on and kept myself alert until I got to work.

“I was shaken but got through the day and drove home. Fifty minutes into my journey I fell asleep at the wheel again while driving at 40mph down a narrow lane. When I woke up the car was drifting toward the verge into the trees. I got home safe, but this was serious.

“In one day I had experienced two instances where I could have died or killed someone else. I decided to Close Call myself. I wanted to understand how the business would respond – I am a firm

believer that if you are driving to and from work it counts as part of your working day.

“My manager and I had a great conversation about the possible causes, risks and how this could be prevented from happening again. I also had a full medical booked in for the same week. I’d had a few stressful months prior to falling asleep at the wheel and had also been ill but still gone to work.

“Due to the nature of the rail industry, we have thousands of drivers who are potentially exposed to fatigue crash risk factors while on the road for work. It’s a serious issue.

“Long working and driving hours, irregular shifts, work schedules, tight timeframes, night-time driving and lack of sleep put work-related drivers at an increased risk of being fatally or seriously injured in a fatigue-related road traffic collision.

“Self-awareness is so important, both to our health and when driving – especially when there is a risk of fatigue. I should have allowed myself to recuperate from being unwell the few weeks before I fell asleep, or taken a step back to see if I was pushing myself too far at work.

“We are not superhuman; we need to look after ourselves and each other. We need to work together to change our thinking and be safer on the roads.” n

Facts• About 300 people are killed each

year as a result of drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

• Fatigue-related crashes tend to be at high speed and are about 50 per cent more likely to result in death or serious injury than collisions caused by other factors.

• Around 40 per cent of sleep-related accidents involve commercial vehicles.

Advice• Plan your journey to include a 15-minute break every two

hours.• Don’t start a long trip if you’re already tired.• Share the driving if possible. If you start to feel sleepy, find

a safe place to stop – not the hard shoulder of a motorway.• If you start to feel sleepy, drink two cups of coffee or a

high-caffeine drink and have a rest for 10 to 15 minutes to allow time for the caffeine to kick in.

• Remember, the only real cure for sleepiness is proper sleep. A caffeine drink or a nap is a short-term solution that will only allow you to keep driving for a short time.

To raise a Close Call: Use the Close

Call App, telephone 01908 723500, or email:

[email protected]

Seat belts

BELT UP


Bora Bekir is still feeling the effects of a collision 10 months ago. But it could have been much worse...

Facts

Advice• Make sure everyone has their seat belt securely fastened before starting any journey. • Ensure you have enough seat belts for everyone. Never squeeze extra people in without

belts, or share the same belt.• Use three-point seat belts not lap belts. Lap belts can rupture internal organs and break

someone’s spine and neck due to whiplash. If a vehicle has a lap belt in a particular seat, don’t use that seat.

“I was driving slightly under the speed limit – about 36 in a 40mph zone. A driver in the opposite lane

was driving dangerously, having overtaken three cars at speed. They lost control of their van and smashed head on into mine. The police told me the driver was doing around 65mph, making the total force of the impact 100mph.

“Because my passenger and I were wearing our seat belts, our lives were saved. But with such a forceful impact I’ve been suffering with severe back pain ever since. I couldn’t walk for two weeks, I’m still going through physiotherapy and I’ve been referred to a spinal specialist.

“Even with the pain I was experiencing the first few months affected my wife more than me – she was sleepless with worry for weeks. It affected my mum too, who was abroad at the time.

“You can’t account for other people’s actions and how they drive, which is why it’s so important to follow the Lifesaving Rules, and the law. It’s not worth the risk – to your life or your job.

“People are less likely to wear a seat belt on short or familiar journeys. The accident I was involved in happened just round the corner from my delivery unit – a trip I do daily.

“Wearing my seat belt saved my life and my passenger’s life, too.” n


Bora BekirSignalling and telecoms operative

In a crash people are

twice as likely to die if they are

not wearing a seat belt.

Department for Transport

research shows only

69 per cent of commercial

drivers wear a seat belt, and 68 per cent of passengers.

It’s a legal requirement

for drivers and passengers to

wear seat belts. Drivers caught without a seat

belt face on-the-spot

fines of £100. If prosecuted, the maximum fine is £500.

The Department for Transport

estimates that front seat

belts save more than

2,200 lives a year.

Home safe

Designed for lifeNetwork Rail’s Home Safe Plan is

all about saving lives. Network takes a look at three of its projects geared towards safe driving



Network Rail owns a fleet of 7,935 vehicles, with its people driving around 128 million miles

every year. Take into account those who drive to and from work, and you’re looking at much more.

The company takes safe driving seriously. The Home Safe Plan, Network Rail’s health and safety improvement plan, is made up of 22 projects that will help reduce significant injury to its workforce. There are three projects that are focused on helping colleagues drive safely:

Driving aids Network Rail is looking to introduce a system across its driving fleet that provides real-time information to drivers and audible alerts when the speed limit is being exceeded.

Chris Parker – Operational planner

“I was recently at Westwood with some colleagues. We got in the car to go back to Tile Hill station at the end of the day. Three of us were in the back and I popped my seat belt on. My colleagues sat next to me in the back hadn’t. So I asked them if they’d realised they hadn’t buckled up. We shouldn’t be afraid to challenge each other on this. It doesn’t matter if it’s five minutes or 500 miles. Buckle up. These things really do save lives.” n

Georgina Chalmers – Communications manager

“I was on holiday in Brazil and because nobody else was wearing seat belts I just stopped wearing mine after a few days. This seemed fine, until the driver of the car I was in had an accident.

“My head was thrown into the windscreen and I had cuts to my face and forehead. I thought I’d gone blind due to how much blood was in my eye.

“Now I always wear a seat belt whenever I’m in a car. If someone isn’t wearing a seat belt, or if the driver is speeding, call them on it.” n

Paul Ollivant – Infrastructure maintenance engineer

“I was driving down the motorway some years ago and the vehicle in front of me turned very late into a slip road. I didn’t think anything of it until I got round the corner and saw the car on its roof. It had hit a tree. I didn’t have a phone but flagged down a police car. I found out the next day the driver had died. I kept questioning how it could have happened and how it could have been avoided.” n

“ Safe behaviour is a requirement of working for Network Rail. The Lifesaving Rules are in place to keep us safe and must never be broken. We must challenge ourselves and our colleagues if we feel a situation or behaviour might be unsafe.” – Rupert Lown

Rupert Lown, head of occupational safety strategy, said: “We know that complying with the speed limit reduces the likelihood of a crash and if a crash does occur it reduces the level of injury that usually occurs.”

Be green, be seen Rupert said: “Even the safest drivers can be involved in accidents as a result of others crashing into them. It’s why wearing seat belts is so important. But we know that only 68 per cent of commercial vehicle drivers wear seat belts. We’ve started to distribute bright green seat belt sleeves to fit to our vehicles, to act as a further prompt for colleagues to buckle up, and to help our people spot unsafe practice and challenge it.”

Alert and alive“We know fatigue can be a problem when driving,” said Rupert. “It’s not an easy subject to solve but as a first step we have been updating Network Rail’s fatigue standard. The new standard will be applicable to everyone at Network Rail. It’s a big change and seeks to move everyone toward working fewer than 60 hours a week. The standard requires a risk assessment to be conducted when a person reaches 60 hours of working with the emphasis being on identifying the fatigue risk to the individual and its possible impact.”

The standard has been developed collaboratively across the business with the support of trade unions. Publication of the standard is expected in September. n

Always be sure the required plans and permits are in place, before you start

a job or go on or near the line

Never use a hand-held or hands-free phone, or programme any other

mobile device, while driving

Always use equipment that is fit for its intended purpose

Always test before applying earths or straps

Never undertake any job unless you have been trained and assessed

as competent

Never assume equipment is isolated – always test before touch

Never work or drive while under the influence of drugs or alcohol

Always use a safety harness when working at height, unless other

protection is in place

Always obey the speed limit and wear a seat belt

Never enter the agreed exclusion zone unless directed to by the

person in charge

Our Lifesaving RulesSafe behaviour is a requirement of working for Network Rail.

These Rules are in place to keep us safe and must never be broken.

We will all personally intervene if we feel a situation or behaviour might be unsafe.

We will always comply with our Lifesaving Rules.

For more information about our Lifesaving Rules go to: safety.networkrail.co.uk/LSR

network july 2016

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