Richmond Train Crash: Safety Breaches and Policy Changes

This report discusses the Richmond train crash in Australia due to safety breaches and the subsequent changes in policy and implementation. It highlights the causes of the crash, including driver negligence and presence of contaminants, and the measures taken to prevent future accidents.

CRITICAL REVIEW

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Safety and risk management is basically the process as well as the tools which are being
used to control and manage the various types of risks. In short, it is used to assess the different
risks which are associated with some hazards and then develop the effective strategy for
eliminating or mitigating it.
The most frightening incident which took place in Australia was Richmond train crash
and thus this report is based on this incident which resulted mainly due to the breaches of some
safety instructions.
This report gives a brief about the Richmond train crash due to safety breaches, Changes
in the policy and its implementation.
MAIN BODY
Richmond train crash due to safety breaches
There has been a lot of train crashes that occurred in Australia from last few years bu the
mots significant accident that took place was the Richmond train accident. This was considered
as one of the horrifying incident which took place on 22 January 2018. This incident actually
happened on Monday at 10 AM. A Waratahtrain, A42 suddenly crashed in the buffer stop at
Richmond station platform no 2. As a result of this incident, around 16 people were reported to
be injured in Sydney north-west as per the some of the report. The passenger train was actually
slowing down to stop at station and suddenly the brake stooped workingmen and hit the barrier at
this station. The train was actually traveling too fast at the speed 45 km/hr and suddenly the
driver lost control on the brakes which resulted in this incident. According to the NSW
ambulance, around 16 passengers were severely injured who are taken to the hospital at
immediate basis (Glendon and Clarke, 2015). Among theses 16 people, a 77 years woman was
reported to have broken her collarbone as well as encountered some of the spinal injuries and
was treated in the hospital. Besides this, the 22-year man was suspected to have been broken his
femur. All the five patients that were transferred to the Blacktown Hospital were discharged
soon. Four patients were reported to be in the stable condition in Westmead Hospital and one
person was discharged. Besides the passengers, two of the train employees were also treated at
case scene. As per the ambulance of South Wales, there were 17 ambulances and more than 2
rescue helicopters that were called at the accident sight. This was one of the most horrifying

accident which took place in Australia and somewhat resulted in the downfall of the safety
breaches (Bahr, 2018).
According to the transport minister of NSW and the national rail safety, the main cause
behind this incident was the negligence of drivers. As per the Transport safety agency of
Australia, the driver was inexperienced and there were also some traces of contaminants which
were reported after the investigation. This driver was unaware of the safety instructions due to
which there has been the breach of these instructions. The driver as well as the rail authority was
held accountable for not complying to the safety actions. According to the report, when the train
was about to reach the platform, the driver lost the control on brakes and was unable to slow
down due to which the train crashed into the barrier. According to the safety agency of Australia,
the driver was not too much taught about the safety rules that have to be followed while driving
the train and was inexperienced (Khan and et.al.,2016). The driver was unknown about the speed
limit which need to be there when train is about to reach the platform. The driver was driving at
high speed and was driving recklessly. Thus, due to this negligence the driver was unable to slow
down and reduce the speed limit at the platform. Along with this, another safety breach which
resulted in this accident is the presence of some contaminants. There has been a report which
says that the train tank was not cleaned periodically due to which the contaminants began to
accumulate. This contaminant eventually entered the engine and thus distorted its functioning.
There has been the traces of Vinyl Chloride, Cyanide, and Caustics that were found in the fuel
tank and thus contaminated it. This was one of the most important safety breach which resulted
in this incident and thus made it one of the most memorable accident in the history of Australia.
Changes in the policy and its implementation
After this frightening train crash, The Transport safety agency of Australia established
the policy of speed limit where the report of 8 march 2018 announced that the speed limit of
trains to be reduced from 50 kilometers per hour to 25 kilometers per hour. As per the incident
report, the train was traveling at the speed of 35 kilometers per hour when it was about to arrive
at station thus the Sydney trains came up with the new policy which imposed the temporary
restriction on the speed to 20 kilometers per hour after the crash (Leveson, 2015). Along with
this, the another policy which also came into force since this incident is the appropriate training
to the drivers and other staff. As per the report of incident, the driver of inexperienced and less
qualified and also was not familiar with route to follow. Also, the driver was medically fit and

was not the under the influence of drug or drinking thus after the accident the Australian Bureau
implemented the strict regulations to provide the well-through training to the drivers and the
driver which have not completed undergone the practice at least 20 times after the training will
not be allowed to drive the train. Along with this, there are numerous reports which claims that if
the train would have updated automatic safety system then this crash would have been prevented.
Thus, the Transport Safety Agency in 20128 formulated the strict policy to continuously update
the safety system of train periodically which will regulate the speed at every location. The bureau
used the policy of ATP system which has the capability to intervene when the train accelerates at
high speed (Boyle, 2015). One more safety breach which resulted in this incident was the
presence of contaminants in the fuel tank. Thus, it was reported that there were made changes in
the policy of cleaning and safety of the trains. The rail authority was advised to clean and
maintain the fuel tank periodically at the interval of 5 hours. Because due to the presence of these
contaminants, the engine get distorted and eventually its acceleration speed increases which can
cause major accidents.
These various policies which has been which resulted from this Richmond incident was
implemented on the urgent basis for the protection of society. The change in the various policy
first took the form of project proposal and then it has been instructed to the rail authority of
Australia. The Australian Rail track corporation was being advised in form of the proposal that
what the speed limit will be, What will be the policy for employees driving and other staff
involved., How the safety system will be updated on equal intervals. After the permission from
central government, They were provided with the various pros of this change in policy and thus
was advised to follow this strictly. Besides this, the various passengers traveling were also made
aware of the new policies which helped them know the constraints of the various practices
(Öztürk, Güner and Tümer, 2018). The change in policy was also implemented by advertising it
one the large platform. As per the reports, this new policies and practices received a huge media
coverage which enabled the rail authority to implement it. The rail authority was strictly
monitored for policy formulation and was ordered to maintain the cleanliness of the fuel tanks
and other things. The staff which was involved in the cleaning and maintenance of the engines
and fuel boxes were strictly monitored and thus was told to fill the new fuel free from
contaminants at the interval of 5 hours.

CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that the Richmond train crash that took place on 22 January 2018
was mainly due to the breaches of some safety issues. This train accident occurred due to the
negligence of driver as the driver was inexperience and thus was less qualified. The driver was
not trained enough to know the speed of train and because of unable to slow down, train went
into the barrier and thus more than 15 people were injured. Besides this, some contaminants were
also reported in the train within fuel tank due to lack of cleanliness and this contributed to the
train crash. Since this crash, various policy were being implemented by the Safety transport
agency of Australia like posing restriction on the speed limit of trains from 50 kilometers per
hour to 20 kilometers per hour, periodically updating automatic safety system to monitor the
speed of trains.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Bahr, N.J., 2018. System safety engineering and risk assessment: a practical approach. CRC
press.
Boyle, T., 2015. Health and safety: risk management. Routledge.
Glendon, A.I. and Clarke, S., 2015. Human safety and risk management: A psychological
perspective. Crc Press.
Khan, F and et.al.,2016. Dynamic risk management: a contemporary approach to process safety
management. Current opinion in chemical engineering.14. pp.9-17.
Leveson, N., 2015. A systems approach to risk management through leading safety indicators.
Reliability Engineering & System Safety.136. pp.17-34.
Öztürk, İ., Güner, G. and Tümer, E., 2018, August. The Root Causes of a Train Accident: Lac-
Mégantic Rail Disaster. In Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (pp.
199-208). Springer, Cham.