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Old November 30th 09, 08:29 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london
Neil Williams Neil Williams is offline
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Default DLR Train Captain Texting Whilst 'Driving'

On Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:26:09 -0800 (PST), SB
wrote:

Just come off the DLR at Tower Gateway at 19.33 tp be exact. Between
Limehouse and TG the train captain was sitting at the front with the
console open supposedly monitoring the operation of the train. However
during all of that time he actually sat there texting on his mobile
phone, with his attention fully on the message he was typing, and he
only stopped doing this when we drew into the TG platform. Bearing in
mind that there have been a number of fatal crashes in the US due to
the drivers texting, is this acceptable behaviour? SB.


He probably was just using the front console to do the doors. This is
quite common when trains are either very busy (so he can ensure there
is room for him to do the doors) or very quiet (so he can sit down).

Unless he was holding the "joystick" (power controller), he probably
had nothing at all to do until the next station.

Remember that the DLR is fully automated other than the doors.

Neil

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Neil Williams
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