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news
Greater Manchester Metrolink tram (licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 on Flickr by Tom Page)UPDATED: Investigation opened after child cyclist aged 10 in life-threatening condition following Manchester tram collision
An incident in which a 10-year-old boy suffered serious injuries following a collision involving a tram in Tameside, Greater Manchester is being investigated by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.
The crash happened just before 7.30pm on the evening of Wednesday 1 September, according to Greater Manchester Police.
The incident happened on Droylsden Road, Audenshaw and the child was taken to hospital by air ambulance with a serious head injury.
Now, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch has announced it will be investigating the collision.
A spokesperson said: "The accident occurred on the East Manchester tram line, between Audenshaw and Droylsden tram stops, at the junction of Droylsden Road and Kershaw Lane. Trams run ‘on-street’ at this location.
"The cyclist involved was crossing Droylsden Road at a ‘Puffin’ pedestrian crossing, which is controlled by road traffic and pedestrian signal lights..
"Our investigation will seek to identify the sequence of events which led to the accident. It will also consider:
"The design and configuration of the crossing which the cyclist was using.
"How the design and operation of the crossing was risk assessed.
"The relevant legislation and industry guidance which deals with the design and configuration of pedestrian crossings where trams run ‘on-street’ [as well as] any relevant underlying factors."
A report of the team's findings will be published online.
Speaking at the time, Police Sergeant Andrew Page of GMP's Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “Our thoughts are currently with the young boy who remains in hospital receiving urgent medical attention.
“Our main priority at this stage is establishing the full circumstances surrounding this collision so we can provide his family with the answers they need.
“This collision occurred early evening on a relatively busy road so we're confident there are people who may have witnessed the collision or be holding information or footage that could greatly assist our enquiries.
“We would urge anyone who thinks they be able to assist to get in touch as a matter of urgency."
Anyone who has information is asked to contact Greater Manchester Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit on 0161 856 4741 or the non-emergency number 101 quoting incident 2747 of 01/09/21.
Alternatively, details can be passed via the force’s LiveChat function at www.gmp.police.uk or via the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
In 2016, 51-year-old former soldier Martin Hughes died following a crash involving a tram in Wythenshawe.
Besides trams, the tracks they run on are a significant source of serious injuries to cyclists according to data from Edinburgh – where injured riders have won damages in civil actions after being injured in such incidents – and, most recently, Dublin.
In 2017, medical student Zhi Min Soh was killed in Edinburgh after one of the wheels of her bike became lodged in a tram track, causing her to fall into the path of a tour minibus, sustaining fatal injuries.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
Not saying it's the case here but wonder if this is the ubiquitous "not invented here" attitude. Seems particularly striking in the UK.
Example: Edinburgh council had consultation about their tram (singular, ran out of cash) and the local cycling organisation funded an expert from europe themselves to advise on this. Predictably he pointed out that mixing bicycles with trams and having them cross tram tracks at a shallow angle was a bad idea. Predictably the council pretty much ignored that. A death and a lot of losing legal suits later and they suddenly woke up and put in some mitigation. Tram phase 2, I remember being at another consultation meeting when we got to ask questions of the tram engineering guy. He took this very personally and when asked if he'd any knowledge or experience of how they do trams all over europe said "I was in Dublin!"
Rail Accident Investigation Branch spokesperson refers to it as an accident in their statement, it's a collision until blame or lack of blame is apportioned...language matters.
Maybe they need to change their name then, because accidents is all they investigate, apparently.
From Steetview it looks like it's a typical, ill-thought out multi-use road. There is space for cyclists between the edge of the carriageway and the tracks but there is also a lot of parking bays at the side of the road. All it would take is for a driver to swing open a door and cause a cyclist to swerve onto the tram tracks.
I strongly disagree. The road is far from typical and I am surprised that it's design is considered safe. I welcome the RAIB insight.
I looked at Google Streetview and the junction with Droylesden road.
The road is divided by pedestrian islands into 2 parts, but they are not equal. One side contains "normal" road traffic in one direction AND Trams in BOTH directions.
I presume they want to find out what happened before
victim blamingcommenting further.(In particular, whether the child got their wheel caught in tracks, and why a ten year old felt they had no alternative but to ride on a "relatively busy main road" shared with trams...)
no, I dont think RAIB would be getting involved unless there was already evidence pointing towards safety improvements be that a process/procedure or change that the rail industry (which includes trams) needed to adopt in this situation.
its often said if the police adopted the RAIB approach to road collision investigations we'd be in a much better place, unfortunately the thoroughness they take means we wont likely see a report for 6-12months at least.
but they wont apportion any blame to any individual involved, they simply document the sequence of events thoroughly and make recommendations to make things safer.
hopefully the injured boy involved makes a good recovery.
Because of the safety culture that has developed over the years on UK railways there are very few deaths, caused accidentally.
The use of a crossing by the unfortunate lad is one hell of a point, does this tram cross ped crossings, how is priority worked out?
They were using a puffin crossing to cross the road, so it doesn't look like they were trying to ride along the road.
I know that now, peter, but that's new information: my comment above was three weeks ago, before the RAIB got involved
a fair point to make, sorry, but hopefully the RAIB involvement will give the investigation more rigour to make sure this kind of tram/cyclist collision doesnt happen again.
Sounds like somebody's living in the past.
Contemporize, man!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1jhCTdx5P8
There's a big difference between the roads and everything else in that rail, aircraft and ships all have some investigatory body which is tasked with investigating incidents and seeing if any lessons can be learned / safety improvements made. Not for the roads. Yes we have police investigation (sometimes) but it's on the basis of "was someone to blame?" The answer often seems to be "nobody really" or "looks like it was 50:50" but even if this leads to legal action the issue is the specific focus. This process doesn't address any systematic issue so
wethe authorities never learn anything.Update: not an equivalent but I recently found out that a coroner can flag something up with a "report to prevent future deaths" (Regulation 28 Report). I'm surprised to find that this is actually used reasonably often. The highways section is here if anyone's interested. Some of these even relate to people on bikes and you can see what the response was (spoiler - this may disappoint).