Lookout not in place when railway workers died, report finds

A report into the deaths of two railway workers who were hit by a train whilst working has found an official lookout was not in place on the day they died.

Gareth Delbridge, 64, from Kenfig Hill and Michael Lewis, 58, from North Cornelly, were working on the signals at Margam East Junction on July 3 when they were hit by a passenger train travelling from Swansea to London Paddington. A third worker was treated for shock but was not injured.

An interim report, published by Network Rail, found that a person looking out for approaching trains had not ben deployed that morning.

It also pointed to the fact that the group of six men working in the area had split up into two groups of three which Network Rail said compromised the number of lookouts available.

Mr Delbridge and Mr Lewis had been using a tool with petrol engine and were wearing ear defenders, which meant they may not have heard the train approaching. The train sounded its horn several times and three colleagues working on the line had tried shouting to them.

The report found there was ''no safe system of work in place for those working on the points. Those working on the points were unaware of the approaching train.''

It also found that the ''wide experience of the closely-knit group and familiarity with each other potentially affected their perception of risk.''

Describing what happened, the report says: ''There was a problem with a bolt, so the operative in the 6-foot turned off the nut runner and his colleague,, acting as the unofficial lookout (although he was not equipped or appointed as site lookout) became involved in the work and suggested putting further oil on the bolt.

''The operative operating the nut runner looked back down, put oil on the bolts and tightened it up while his colleague supported the bolt with his foot. The person operating the nut runner had just taken his finger off the trigger then the train struck his two colleagues.''

The initial report found that the use of noisy petrol engine would have required a site lookout to provide at least 30 seconds warning of an approaching train. That would have allowed the workers to move to a position of safety 10 seconds before the train arrived.

Wearing ear defenders meant there should have been a second ''touch lookout'' who could have physically warned the men.

''This was not part of the planning and was not deployed on the site. This would mean that more than three staff needed to undertake this activity given that four trains were to pass.''

Martin Frobisher, Network Rail's safety director said they will ''continue to look deeper'' into the incident.

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Mr Delbridge and Mr Lewis' families have spoken of the outpouring of support they have received since the tragedy, not only from their local communities of Kenfig Hill and North Cornelly, but from the whole of the UK.

In a statement, the families said: “Following the deaths of Gareth and Mike we have been absolutely overwhelmed with cards, notes, social media messages, text messages, as well as written letters from all over the country.

"The kind tributes following the deaths saw flowers being sent from all across the UK to both families, as well as letters of condolences being sent to churches in the hope that they would find their way to the families.

“The profound effect that these men’s deaths have had on the communities of Kenfig Hill and Cornelly was shown by the vast number of people who came to both funerals to pay their last respects.

"Family and friends, work colleagues, neighbours, club members as well as everyone else who attended made both days incredibly special and the boys if they were still here, would have been proud."

A number of concurrent investigations have been launched into how the incident took place.

In July an accident report by the government revealed that colleagues had tried to warn the men of the approaching train, but were unsuccessful.