Eden Park: Blind man rescue delayed amid live track fear, hears jury

A blind man who was hit by a train lay untreated for 10 minutes because emergency crews were unsure if tracks were still live, an inquest has heard.

Cleveland Gervais, 53, died when he fell off the platform and was hit at Eden Park station in south-east London.

First responders arrived at the scene at 19:18 GMT in February 2020, but did not go on to the tracks for 10 minutes.

There was confusion over whether they could be electrocuted, a jury at South London Coroner's Court was told.

Peter Gallon, a paramedic from London Ambulance Service (LAS) who attended the scene, said he refused to risk his crewmates' lives by sending them on to the tracks, if rail staff were unsure whether the power was switched off.

He said: "There's no second chance here, there's no plan B. If we make a mistake here one of my team is going to die."

Jurors heard emergency services waited until a specialist Rail Incident Officer (RIO) attended to physically confirm the electricity was off.

Jude Bunting QC, representing Mr Gervais' family, told the inquest the driver had been "shouting" to emergency service workers at the scene that the electricity was turned off, but police and paramedics claimed they did not hear.

The LAS control room had also allegedly been told the tracks were no longer live but did not relay this information to first responders on the ground, the inquest heard.

British Transport Police Sgt Stephen Lewis, who also attended the scene, said he would not have acted differently in hindsight because of the "complex" and dangerous nature of the incident.

He said: "As traumatic of an incident as this was for everyone involved, in my mind there is nothing that I could have done to have sped up access to Mr Gervais."

A new system has now been introduced to allow rail staff and emergency workers to more easily see the status of the tracks.

The inquest, which is due to last five days, is set to continue on Wednesday.

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