Road Safety Week special: Supporting a line report through an RTC

This is the second episode in our Rail Industry Road Safety Week miniseries.

This episode, we're joined by Jamie Mills, a Section Manager at Network Rail. He speaks with us about his experiences of managing an employee who experienced a road traffic accident in the line of work. Jamie discusses what he did in the immediate aftermath to support the employee and what came next to drive down future risk.

Find out more at https://www.rssb.co.uk/managing-occupational-road-risk

Transcript

Host [00.17]: Welcome to the second episode in our Rail Industry Road Safety Week miniseries. We hope you're enjoying the series so far!

In our first episode, we spoke with Dave Whelan, a train manager at GB Railfreight, who told us about his experience of a work-related road traffic accident, including his recovery and life in the aftermath. But there's another perspective to incidents like Dave's, and it's that of the line manager: the person responsible for supporting employees in the event of something like this, including carefully facilitating their return to work and engaging with the investigation process.

So with us today is Jamie Mills, a section manager at Network Rail. He'll be speaking with us about some of his experiences in this area, including some key learning points and some new safety measures that have been implemented at Network Rail.

Hi Jamie, and thanks so much for joining us today.

Jamie Mills [01.05]: Hi Jasmin, it's good to be here.

Host [01.07]: So can you first tell us a little bit about yourself and about your current and previous roles at Network Rail?

Jamie [01.12]: So I'm Jamie Mills, I'm 34, and I'm currently a Section Manager for Norwood P-Way. My hobbies are heavy metal, mountain biking, and gaming. I like a bit of Formula One as well.

My previous roles, so I started with Network Rail as an apprentice in 2011. I finished in 2014 to become a technical officer, and then I became a supervisor for the mobile maintenance train. And I've now moved on from there to become a section manager for P-Way at Norwood, where I manage 28 staff, and I also look after 155 miles worth of track to ensure the safety of our passengers.

Host [01.46]: Thanks, Jamie. And would you now be OK to tell us about a time when you've been responsible for managing an employee who'd experienced a road traffic accident?

Jamie [01.54]: Yeah, of course.

Host [01.55]: To set the scene, then, what happened that day?

Jamie [01.57]: I did a full day shift on the night that happened. I was asleep; it happened at about 1.45 in the morning. And I had a call from the team. Basically, it was in my previous role for the MMT [mobile maintenance train], I was on-call manager for the week. I got a call from Sussex Route Control. The employee then called me who was involved at 2 a.m.

The employee was involved in a head-on RTA [road traffic accident] with another vehicle whilst travelling to site.

Host [02.24]: Thank you for sharing that. And of course, I'm glad they're OK. I'd like to ask next about what might have led to that particular accident. Was it a clear-cut cause, or was it something a bit more complex?

Jamie [02.35]: So, the employee had a microsleep and unfortunately drifted into the path of an oncoming vehicle. It was a relatively low-speed accident at 20 mph. It could have caused a catastrophic issue. But the employee's incredibly hardworking and was undertaking some site visits at Croydon in a planned possession with members of the Croydon team.

Host [02.58]: And how possible is it to manage that sort of thing as a line manager?

Jamie [03.01]: So, it's not an easy thing to manage. We can't ensure employees are getting sufficient rest outside of their hours, but we can manage their workloads and hours of working and generally [have] some compassion for them.

It may be hard for our colleagues to get sufficient rest. Some have commitments outside of work, such as children and their families. I think this may have contributed to the microsleep. The colleague at the time, he was having a bit of a hard time at home, and he raised with me after the accident that he wasn't sleeping well.

Host [03.28]: And so what were you personally able to do to support the driver following their accident? For example, was it a case of medical support, of psychiatric support? Or was it retraining in a certain area? Or was it something else even?

Jamie [03.41]: So my support for my employee started immediately. So, I contacted them, checked on their condition, and I also sent a member of the team who was working on the mobile maintenance train at the time to go and collect them. I also asked the employee on the phone if they felt OK, if there were any injuries. In this instance, it was just symptoms of shock, which was quite lucky.

I recommended that they got checked at hospital, but they didn't want to. I then asked the employee to just wait at the depot until the team had finished their planned works because the employee car shares with the team. This basically then meant that they weren't on their own going home or driving after the accident.

I then initiated the golden hour process after I checked on the employee. So, the golden hour process with Network Rail is a system of checks on the employee. So, you check at 1 hour, 12 hours, and 24 hours after the incident and you update Sussex Route Control with that timeline. I then provided the updates for the first hour, the 12 hours, and then 24 hours after the incident.

After the incident, I recommended PAM Assist, which is Network Rail's counselling service. The employees can phone up and they can get on-the-phone counselling and support for any issues that they have.

The driver also was put on the driving course via Fleetmaster. So, we organised that after the incident. We didn't allow him to drive any vehicles until he had sat this. We then briefed the whole team on the fatigue standard and the wider risks. Once the employee had passed the course, we implemented as a team that nobody is to drive alone on duty, as well as implementing a process where if an employee felt fatigued prior to a shift, they could contact the on-call manager and explain and use that instance for rest.

Host [05.20]: Thanks, Jamie. And so following on from that then, what did the official investigation process look like? And how did you engage with that as a line manager?

Jamie [05.29]: The investigation was a local investigation, known as a level one investigation within Network Rail, and it's closed out within the DU, so it doesn't go any further than our area. And what that investigation looks at is the cause, any issues arising from that, any lessons learned, and then basically involved an interview with the employee by a level one trained investigator. And this is usually somebody that's from outside of the team and that doesn't know the employee.

Host [05.56]: And what key things did you learn from this experience - as an individual, as a line manager, and from an organisational perspective?

Jamie [06.04]: Yeah, sure. So, accidents can happen to anyone. So, good quality rest is essential for any shift work. And as a line manager and person dealing with the incident from home at the time, I found it quite difficult to get back to sleep after I'd finished dealing with the incident because the accident could have been so much worse than what it was and was a quite a lucky escape for the employee.

So that's one thing I learned: that good quality rest if I'm going on to nights is essential. So, you know, I can mitigate any issues of microsleeps or feeling tired because usually accidents happen on the way home. So as long as I'm sufficiently rested, I can then feel fine to drive home post-shift.

Host [06.45]: Thanks, Jamie. And finally, has Network Rail implemented any new safety measures or initiatives for road drivers since this particular incident?

Jamie [06.53]: Yes. So, the first thing that was implemented was that nobody is to drive alone. So, everybody should have somebody with them, i.e., if they're feeling tired, they can take over or for instance, they can talk to them, keep them in the room basically whilst they're undertaking their duties.

And then also as well, there was something implemented where they can contact us prior to the shift and let us know if they're fatigued, and we can then mitigate that fatigue in some way by like allowing the team member to start the shift later or even by getting some rest by having that shift off.

Host [07.23]: Jamie, thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you for listening!

If you want to learn more about the work RSSB does to help industry manage occupational road risk, please visit our website. 

We look forward to you joining us for the next episode. And in the meantime, safe travels!