Croydon tram crash: Driver may have had ‘micro-sleep’
The driver of a tram involved in a fatal crash in Croydon in 2016 may have been “disorientated” following a so-called micro-sleep, an inquest has heard.
Simon French, chief inspector for the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), said there was evidence the driver thought he was travelling in the wrong direction.
He told an inquest into the crash, which began this week at Croydon Town Hall, that “it is quite possible that the driver was fatigued”, adding that this could be the result of “cumulative sleep deprivation and insufficient sleep the previous night”.
“We think then there were insufficient distinctive factors to alert drivers to their direction of travel. One way of providing a visual clue is a sign but there are other ways of doing that,” he said, according to a BBC report.
The crash took place shortly after 6am on 9 November 2016 near Sandilands tram stop. Seven people were killed and a further 51 passengers were taken to hospital.
French said the crash was “fast and violent”, adding that witnesses had described it as “like being inside a washing machine”.
A reconstruction of the crash showed a tram emerging from the tunnel at 48mph before slowing down to 45mph as it reached a sharp bend, where it started to tip over and slid on its side.
The normal speed on exiting the tunnel was 31mph, with a speed limit of 12.5mph at the bend, the inquest jury was told.
Investigation ‘anomalies’
French told the inquest that the RAIB was “very confident” about how events unfolded in the run-up to the crash.
But the organisation has come under criticism for its handling of the incident, including the conclusions of its report into the disaster.
Last month City A.M revealed that a former Transport for London (TfL) board member had written to the RAIB demanding that it revised its report.
The complaints centred on the report’s failure to analyse a series of safety audits of the Croydon tram operation carried out between 2014 and 2017.
As City PM has revealed, these audits show that fatigue management had been highlighted as a problem on the network as early as 2014.
RAIB’s report, which was published in December 2017, concluded that the driver of the tram likely suffered a “micro-sleep episode”.
Despite raising concerns that the fatigue management practices of TOL – the First Group subsidiary that runs the tram network – were “not always in line with published industry practice”, RAIB concluded that it was “not a factor in the accident”.
In his letter former TfL safety panel chief Michael Liebriech said there were a number of “anomalies” in the report that cast doubt on these conclusions.
The RAIB has insisted its report provides an “authoritative and evidence-based account of the accident and its causes”.
The hearing, which is expected to last 13 weeks, continues.