2 September 2004 - New Rail Report Published by HSE - Signals Passed at Danger (SPAD) report for July 2004
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently published the Signals Passed at Danger (SPAD) report for July 2004.
The HSE describes a signal passed at danger (SPAD) as "an incident when a train passes a stop signal without authority to do so."
Even though there are hundreds of SPADs per year, most have little or no potential to cause harm because they are the result of minor misjudgements of distance or braking capability, or they occur at low speed during shunting operations. Each signal has a safety overlap, which is the track's safety margin after the signal, usually 200 yards, which offers protection against drivers misjudging braking. However, there is the potential for a serious incident if the train runs past the safety overlap feature, which can result in the possibility of a collision with another train.
Only 2.7% of all collisions and derailments over the last 30 years have been directly caused by SPADs.
The report summary of SPADs for July is as follows:
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44 signals were passed at danger, 7 more than July 2003
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17 were serious SPADs (8 more than in July 2003) falling within the Railway Group’s severity category 3 to 8
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This month’s figure is 2 less than the average figure for this month over the last 6 years.
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20 SPADs were at signals with a previous SPAD history; 5 of these had been passed at danger 5 times or more since 1985.
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8 trains ran past the signal by more than 200 yards.
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10 trains overran the signal by 200 yards or less but still exceeded the signal’s “overlap” distance. 19 trains ran past the signal by 25 yards or less.
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In 8 instances it was not the first time that the driver had passed a signal at danger.
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There were 24 cases where the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) successfully operated.
The report - Signals Passed at Danger (SPAD) report for July 2004 can be accessed by clicking here.
Further information can be found on the Signals Passed At Danger (SPADS) area of the HSE web site.
