London Overground: Three people dragged by trains within week

Three passengers were dragged along London Overground platforms in north London within the space of a week, the railway safety watchdog has revealed.

A hand, walking stick and umbrella were trapped in the doors at Seven Sisters, Wembley Central and Crouch Hill stations respectively in June.

Each passenger was standing at the rear door, furthest from cameras used by drivers to check it is safe to depart.

There were no injuries, a Rail Accident Investigation Branch report said.

None of the drivers, who all had between 10 and 23 years experience driving for Arriva Rail London (and its predecessors) which operates parts of London Overground, realised anything had become trapped in the doors.

The passenger trapped at Seven Sisters ran alongside the eight-carriage train, which reached 13km/h (8mph), for 30ft (9m) before freeing their hand. The train came to a stop after travelling 118ft (36m).

The relevant camera in this incident was misaligned and "this meant that the trapped passenger was visible on the monitor only from the neck down", the report notes.

"Objects which are thinner than 30mm, such as fingers or walking sticks, or which are non-rigid in nature, such as bag straps, will not necessarily be detected by this [obstacle detection] system," the report states.

Some of the white lines closest to the train, which are used by drivers to check nothing is protruding from the platform edge towards the trains, needed repainting, according to witnesses spoken to in the report.

A similar incident took place at Wood Street station, north-east London, in January. In 2018, a dog was dragged to death after a Thameslink train trapped its lead.

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