Edinburgh pensioner run over by four trains at London Underground inquiry finds

An Edinburgh pensioner who died after falling onto the tracks at a London Underground station was run over by four trains, an inquiry has found.

The horrific details of Brian Mitchell's death has led to a number of new measures being implemented in order to prevent a similar tragedy. These include installing new technology to detect the presence of a human as an updated way of stopping services.

The 72-year-old died at Stratford Station on the Jubilee line on Boxing Day afternoon in 2023. No-one saw the OAP struggling to climb back to the platform and he was run over by a train five minutes later. He was then struck by a further three in-bound trains. Mr Mitchell, who was originally from Edinburgh, had been living in West London at the time of the incident, the Scottish Daily Express reports.

READ MORE: Lidl to open 14th Edinburgh store with massive new shop planned for summer

READ MORE: Edinburgh police arrest man and woman after missing family found safe

An investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) found the operator of the first train did not see the passenger on the track ahead as it arrived at the platform. In their report, they stated that the operator "may also have been distracted by the presence of another operator who was standing on the platform" as the first train arrived.

The RAIB went on: "The consequences of the accident were made more severe because the operator of the second in-bound train to arrive at the platform also did not see the passenger, while the operator of the third in-bound train saw something when they were arriving at the platform but did not recognise what they saw as being a person.

Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.

"The fourth in-bound train was not stopped by a customer service assistant who was present on the platform when it was entering the station, even though the assistant was by now aware that a person was on the track."

The authors continued: "Although the operator of the fourth in-bound train had independently recognised that there was a person on the track, they did not stop their train. The train operators working the trains in the out-bound direction were not aware of the passenger because the passenger was underneath their respective trains before they departed."

Lilli Matson, chief safety officer for Transport for London - which is responsible for London Underground - said its "thoughts remain with the family and friends of Mr Mitchell."

Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox

She said the RAIB recommendations "align with the findings of our own internal investigation and work has already begun to implement them".

"While serious injuries on our network are rare, we are undertaking a huge range of work to eradicate such incidents and make the network even safer for everyone," she added.