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Eden Park: Death of blind man hit by train ruled accident

BBC Cleveland GervaisBBC
Cleveland Gervais died after falling onto railway tracks at Eden Park station

The death of a blind man hit by a train was an accident despite an absence of warnings for partially sighted people on the platform, an inquest has found.

Cleveland Gervais, 53, died after falling off the platform at Eden Park in south east London in February 2020.

South London Coroner's Court found the death was an accident.

A lack of tactile paving, which can warn vision-impaired people they are near an edge, contributed "more than minimally", the inquest concluded.

RAIB Eden Park stationRAIB
Cleveland Gervais fell from the platform at Eden Park station in 2020

Sekha Hall, Mr Gervais's partner, said: "I'm heartbroken and I'm horrified. When I'm travelling by train I sit on an opposite platform and I see a train pull in I count how many wheels went over him.

"It's never going to leave me ever.

"I'm as pleased as can be in a situation like this that the jury have agreed that the lack of tactile paving played an important part in the episode that happened.

"I'm pleased that they have recognised that communication between the emergency services could have been better."

Confusion over whether the track was electrified led to a 10-minute delay in treatment by first responders, the inquest heard.

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

Tactile paving at a crossing
Tactile surfaces are common on pavements and are found on some platform edges at railway stations

Mr Gervais, who was from Trinidad and Tobago and lived in Lambeth, used a walking stick, had 6% vision in one eye and no vision in the other.

The inquest was told previously that Mr Gervais fell from platform one at 19:05 GMT, but it was not until 19:28 that paramedics were able to access the track.

Mr Gervais was removed from under the train at 19:42 and pronounced dead at 20:00, with his cause of death recorded as multiple injuries.

Matt Stringer, chief executive of the Royal National Institute of Blind People, said the death "was not an isolated incident".

"We welcome this week's inquest as an opportunity for essential lessons to be learned, so that such a senseless tragedy never happens again," Mr Stringer said.

"There should be no train platforms without tactile paving."

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