Tram driver did not see passenger who was dragged along

A passenger got his walking stick stuck in a tram door, an investigation found

A passenger was seriously injured after their walking stick became stuck in the doors of a tram in Nottinghamshire.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said the passenger tried to stop the doors closing with the stick and their hand at a stop in Beeston.

The stick then became stuck, but driver was unaware and set off at about 18:05 GMT on 22 February.

The passenger was dragged for about three seconds, fell against the tram and landed on the edge of the stop.

The man was trying to board a tram at Beeston Centre

The RAIB has conducted an investigation and made a number of safety recommendations in a bid to prevent a similar incident happening again.

According to the RAIB report, the tram doors "were already starting to close" by the time the passenger attempted to board.

The tram's obstacle detection system also did not sense the stick was stuck in the doors, probably because it was too thin in diameter to trigger an alert.

The tram driver also failed to use a CCTV camera to check the view from the rear of the tram, which the investigation report said "must be done before departing all tram stops".

The RAIB insisted tram operator Nottingham Express Transit (NET) installed an extra CCTV camera at the back of every tram after a different incident, where a pram got stuck in the doors in Radford in 2017.

The driver of the tram in the Beeston incident admitted they had not checked the rear view camera before they set off, even though they had been trained to do so.

But the RAIB said its inspectors had noticed that a number of tram drivers were not carrying out a final check from the rear CCTV camera either.

"This suggests that, although the training requires drivers to complete this check, drivers do not always comply with this requirement and the monitoring of drivers by [NET] to ensure that they are driving to the relevant standard may not be completely effective," the report said.

In an attempt to stop a similar incident in future, the RAIB has recommended tram drivers use both the front and rear CCTV cameras on the tram before setting off from every stop and that they do not rely on the door obstacle detection systems.