Severn Valley Railway 'sorry' after £40k fine for painter's horror 13ft fall

One of the Midlands' most popular visitor attractions has been fined £40,000 after a worker suffered 'very serious injuries' in a 13ft fall. The carriage painter was working alone and without a safety harness when they plunged from a train roof, hit a metal storage cabinet and landed on a concrete floor.

The victim was left six broken bones in their lower back and neck injuries. The heritage railway company was fined after pleading guilty to offences under the Work at Height Regulations 2005. An investigation by industry regulator, Office of Rail and Road (ORR), found Severn Valley Railway had failed to put in place recognised standards of protection when working at height, while safe systems of work and appropriate instruction, planning and supervision were not present when the repainting was carried out.

The incident involving the full-time locomotive and carriage painter happened on February 22, 2021 at Severn Valley Railway’s Bridgnorth Locomotive Works where a repaint of a Mark 1 carriage was being undertaken.

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District Judge Ian Strongman said the company “fell woefully below the standards expected”. The accident was branded "yet another avoidable" incident.

Richard Hines, HM Chief Inspector of Railways, said: “This is yet another avoidable working at height incident at a heritage railway which resulted in very serious injuries. My thoughts are with the individual concerned.

“Our inspectors have recently met with heritage operators across the sector to reinforce expectations of them around the proportionate safety arrangements that must be followed in order to carry out such maintenance tasks, because, sadly, these types of incidents remain too common. Poor standards are unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

The company was also ordered to pay £48,000 costs at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court. After the hearing, the railway said it accepted the judge's findings. Managing director, Jonathan ‘Gus’ Dunster, said: ‘Now proceedings have been completed, we have the first opportunity to express publicly to the person affected and their family how sorry we are that this accident happened. We accepted the findings of the judge outlined in court.

‘The Severn Valley Railway fully acknowledges shortcomings in our safety management system existed when the accident happened in February 2021." The company said a "raft of measures" had been implemented since to try to avoid similar incidents occurring.

Mr Dunster said: "An established health and safety department is now driving safety improvements across the railway and there has been a universal step change in safety culture at the SVR, transforming the way our paid staff and volunteers work.

‘As part of our continual improvement process, we regularly review our internal policies and procedures, and are providing a significantly greater level of training and supervision for our paid staff and volunteers.

‘Although the SVR is seen primarily by many people as a heritage attraction, we are first and foremost an operational railway, and must abide by the same regulations and safety standards as the main line railway."

Have you been affected by this? We would like to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing stephanie.balloo@reachplc.com