Among all the argument and counter argument about electrification clearances that has raged in recent months, one figure stood out for me. Not the distance between live wire and platform, or clearance between wire and overbridge, but that the Rail Safety & Standards Board safety risk model estimates a passenger fatality from 25kV electric shock will occur once every 300 years.
And that’s presumably based on the existing kit that is strung up around the country which nobody (so far!) has suggested should be replaced, rather than equipment erected to the new more restrictive and horrendously expensive standards for no other reason than to reduce the perceived risk even further towards a vanishing point sometime in the next millennium. Now, here’s another figure.
Depratment for Transport statistics show that 1,792 people died on our roads last year. That’s an average of nearly five people killed today as you read this. Sadly, another five yesterday. And yet another five tomorrow. Worse still, after several years of decline, the number has started to increase again. So five a day and getting worse, not one in 300 years. To save you the maths, that means you are around 543,000 times more likely to be …
