*From:* Tubeprune
*Date:* Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:50:29 -0700 (PDT)


One area that needs to be addressed is the police and fire brigade
approach to such incidents. It's usually the them that require a
complete shutdown. NR and the railway companies need to get
together
with the emergency services to examine more efficient ways of
recovering the train service. It's difficult but it can be done.

Apart from any forensic work, I think the amount of time taken depends a
lot on whether the person is still alive or not. Every effort will be made
to get out a person that's alive without any additional damage, even if
this means cutting off a limb when they're trapped. It may be possible to
remove an inaccessible dead person quicker if the train is moved past the
body, as long as the person has obviously been certified dead and suitable
evidence taken for the coroner and any subsequent damage has no impact for
the autopsy - i.e. a leg being chopped off if the train is moved probably
won't make much difference to the overall result as far as the coroner is
concerned. I know this sort of thing has been done in the past.

Each one under is different. On the Underground, in the deep level
stations with the suicide pits, acess to the person or body is generally
easier. However, it can still take time to actually get the person or body
out. Some of the time spent may be waiting for the "heavy gang" to arrive
if, for example, the train needs jacking up. In many cases, the subsequent
police action is very short by comparison, unless foul play is suspected,
in which case the station (and track) may be shut for hours.

Another delay can be the state of the body. A body that is visibly in one
piece is much easier to deal with than one that has been chopped up into
various pieces and may be scattered over a wide area (especially when hit
by a fast train) or stuck to the underside of the train. In these
circumstances, the police will normally want to do a thorough track search
before giving the track back for use. For some reason, perhaps because of
it's shape, the head is sometimes some distance away from the rest of the
body and may take a while to find, depending on how far it's rolled and
the state of the trackside.

Roger