UK guard faces prison after waving train off with drunk passenger leaning on carriage

zenno

It's a sad story indeed. Below is a picture of the girl just before it happened...


Belinda Nicholson, who had been a train driver for 16 years prior to the accident in October last year, said she was operating blind and was relying on guard Christopher McGee to tell her that the train was safe to move off.
When she got ‘two bells’ from McGee she began to accelerate only for a warning third bell to sound “within seconds”'

It looks like Christopher McGee was on the opposite side of the train when he signalled the train driver so maybe he didn't see her until the last minute when he rang the warning third bell as he might have just got a glimpse of her through the windows because i don't see him on her side of the train, or is that his head sticking outside the train on her side ?

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/liverpoolecho/nov2012/5/3/georgia-train-620-921855796.jpg

Mikros

Some very strange comments on this thread.

The train company/guard on the train have a duty of care to the passengers and people on the platform to ensure their safety. The fact that this passenger was drunk increases the duty, the same if it was a disabled person, child, elderly person - they are all more vulnerable than your average passenger. The fact that she was 16 and shouldn't be drunk doesn't in any way absolve or reduce the train company/guard of their duty.

At the end of the day the train wasn't clear, the guard did not do their job, and a young girl has lost her life as a result of a preventable series of events. We all have done stupid things when young. The rush to shift the blame to the girl is disturbing. Just because someone might put themselves in harms way does not mean you have any lesser responsibility towards them.

You can argue over whether it was reasonable for the guard to miss the girl before giving the all clear - but the jury having heard all the evidence clearly felt he was negligent. I don't see why I should second guess them...

Cookie_Monster

Morrika wrote: »

I think if you actually look at the CCTV still you can see the girl leaning on the train and you can see the guards head poking out one of the windows. He knew she was there and should have waited. I think the guards job is to ensure the safety of the train and passengers etc. he was at least partially responsible for her death all the other stuff about how drunk she was and her age don't have any bearing on his guilt.

that still could very easily be after he'd cleared the train to leave while she was still moving away. once he cleared it she could have turned back them and in that instant be back leaning against the train. At that point without breaking the laws of physics neither he nor the driver could have reacted quickly enough to stop the train from moving off.

As people have said we don't know cause it'll never be made public but the above is what I reckon happened.

Peregrinus wrote: »

So you think that the only options are either massive over-reaction, or no safety precautions at all?

The notion of simply continuing to operate the train guard system that's been in place for over a hundred and thirty years doesn't strike you as feasilble, then? You know, the one where the guard's job is to check that it's safe to depart, and signal the driver to go when it is?

no, clearly i was being facetious. but if the likes of the DART can safely operate without conductor I don't see why the above service can't.


also to lighten the mood:

A Dub in Glasgo

It was his job to safely dispatch the train and he failed to do it. It looks like he took a chance with fatal consequences. If the girl was sober, I doubt she would have died in this situation.

My main beef with this is the bull**** spewed out by the mother

'Speaking outside court, Miss Varley's mother, Paula Redmond, 41, said: "Christopher McGee will complete his sentence and return to his family. Mine is now gone forever.

"We have listened as our daughter was portrayed as being a drunken liability when, in all honesty, she did no more than what many teenagers do of a weekend - she went out to celebrate her friend's birthday.

"The only liability that night was a train guard whom Georgia had the catastrophic misfortune to encounter.

"For he had very little, if any, regard at all for our daughter and her safety."

Peregrinus

Vic_08 wrote: »

That doesn't make it right though.

There were many people whose actions (or inactions) contributed to this event;

The girl herself for getting drunk and high . . .

And yes the train guard who made one small error of judgement in a split second by not halting the dispatch procedure to shoo away this individual drunk.

As per usual it is far easier to just ignore all the other factors and condemn one individual for one fleeting judgement call that he should not have been put in the position of making in the first place. It is scapegoating of the worst kind to put criminal charges against someone for that at all.

All the other factors you list are explanations of how she came to be leaning against the train when it was due to move off.

But they're not relevant to the guard's duty. His job is to make sure that it's safe for the train to move off. The factors you mention are part of the explanation of why it wasn't safe, but the fact remains that it wasn't, and he signalled to the driver that it was. And that's why he was convicted.

666irishguy

I'd say he was fed up with dealing with drunks or people off their heads on god knows what and he just decided in a moment of madness to teach her a lesson and signal the train to move out in the hope she would at worst fall face first onto the platform once the train had moved off or would just feck off when she felt it move. She must have been well out of it and uncoordinated that she tried to move along side the train and fell off the platform under it. Bottom line is even though she was off her head, he was the sober one and should not have made such a dumb call if his intentions were the above. He could have just held up the train a few minutes longer and got the cops/transport police to move her along or throw her in the cells for the night.

A Dub in Glasgo

In my expereince he would have had to hold the train up for a lot longer than a few minutes for the BTP to arrive.

He could have let her back on the train though unless she was playing games jumping on and off the train