I suppose technology exists that can alert staff to someone climbing down onto the tracks and/or entering a tunnel. Perhaps that could be introduced at stations where people are more likely to be battered after a heavy night on the town. Cheaper and quicker to install than barrier-ing the entire platform.
If it was financially feasible to have platform screens or staff on every platform then I’m sure they’d do it. Perhaps the policy could be to deny entry to people until they have sobered up? That seems dangerous for staff though.
Has suicide been ruled out then? I was a severe alcoholic for 5 years and would never of done something that stupid whilst drunk. Somehow “curiosity killed the intoxicated cat” doesn’t sit well here. Condolences.
The unions will say staff the platform at great expense;
The consultants will say put in automated full body barriers at even greater expense;
The comments will say ‘let them die’ at the greatest expense (the cost of a human life);
I say why is everything so bloody expensive 🥲
“Ms Cunningham, who had used cocaine and ketamine before her death”
Why does TfL have to have a policy?
Why not make using coke and ketamine illegal for recreational use? /s.
Oh wait it is.
It’s a tragedy for the family and friends of the deceased.
It’s also awful for the TfL workers, contractors and emergency services had to deal with the aftermath and clean up.
Wow, what a way to go. Body left in tunnel for two days 🙁
Grim.
Just because people didn’t think she was suicidal doesn’t mean she wasnt. Saying this as someone who’s struggled with suidical ideation my whole life. People are clueless. Friends of Kurt Cobain said he wasn’t depressed!
She was an artist too – a good one at that. I bet she had a lot going on that people weren’t aware of. Rest in peace.
Where were her friends, how do you just let someone go home on their own in this state?
ah yes, a drunk, high (on 3 substances) person does something crazy and it’s tfl’s fault.
Why should TFL have to address this ? Sorry but bad shit happens when you get that wasted . I’m sorry for the deceased but we can’t police fucking everything
TfL’s policy should be “Drugs are bad, mmmmm’kay”.
Hard cases make bad law. Would it be nice if platforms were safer at little extra cost? Sure. But incidents like these are still vanishingly rare given the tube’s annual passenger numbers. Sounds like it was desperately bad luck staff members weren’t where they should have been for a few seconds
Might get flack for this… but do we really need a “policy”? We don’t have a policy for preventing drunk people falling down the stairs in their own home, or guillotining themselves attempting a 200kg bench PR after a heavy night of drinking. Surely just tell people not to get hammered and use the tube? This is on the individual.
Busy stations I agree should have barriers, though.
Lot of “why should we pay to put seatbelts in cars? It’s the drivers who cause accidents!” thinkers in this thread.
No sympathy what’s so ever tbh
How is someone telling tfl something a news article…
I’m a left-wing person who believes in a degree of state intervention.
But this case was both awful and ludicrous. This woman (not especially young, either) had consumed a *lot* of drugs of different kinds, and was then left by her friends and partner to make her own way home. She walked into the tube tunnel and died.
We need better drugs education by the state, but I fail to see how much more TfL could do to prevent this kind of accident.
Individual adults need to take some fucking responsibility for themselves.
The argument for better train-platform safety measures doesn’t come from this case, but from the statistics about the high number of injuries and accidents that take places each year on the underground. From last year:
*Data revealed by lawyers at Leigh Day after a Freedom of Information Act request has shown that, on average, on the London Underground there have been over 1,600 incidents a year at the “platform-train interface” over the past decade.*
*This amounts to approximately 133 incidents each month. These include falls from the platform, falls between the train and the platform, contact between a person and a train and persons caught in or struck by train doors, also referred to as “trap and drag incidents”. Figures from the past three years indicates an annual increase in incidents of about 13%.*
Silly girl should have laid off the ketamine
Two criticisms of this:
1) Wildly open to abuse and the whims of staff. Unless they’re paying for cops or training proper staff to carry out checks, it could just be some old rando deciding who gets in or not based on whether he likes the look of you/your kind.
2) The new phrase “You’re too drunk for the train, you better drive” would pop up.
I do get though that the overwhelming majority of problems staff and passengers have are caused by people on drink and drugs, and this would help them no end. I just can’t see how it would be fairly enforced without either;
creating either a crooked caste system, where they only let middle class commuters on rail,
or cost billions creating some kind of police/social worker force, advisory boards, etc. that could be trusted to carry it out.
i would have bet some money that there were at least some cameras with some sort of alert systems in place to detect unauthorised access to the tunnels from the stations
perhaps invest in that?
God knows I have been intoxicated in my life, but the idea of walking down a tube tunnel never crossed my mind… as much as I feel for this horrible loss of life, it seems to me that we cannot make the whole world intoxicated idiot-proof.
Though I’m curious about how it took two days for her body to be found, did the driver not notice he hit someone? Deep-level tunnels don’t have pits unlike platforms so it’s not like there’s anywhere for a body to go that wouldn’t interfere with trains.
Proper Darwin award , this one
Why is there no element of personal responsibility ever pushed for? The government can’t follow us around wiping our butts for us our whole lives
We also need an intoxicated policy for all high points and sharp objects
The tfl staff member failed to view the cctv due to an “urgent call” …at 3:30am.
🌈 Virtual Signaling 🌈
Achieve nothing
Prevents nothing
Make a few people in a room their job adds value to society
We cannot prevent stupid accidents like this.
Ho yes, then restrict alcohol sales and distribution then 🤷
There’s no policy for natural selection.
Take some responsibility for your own actions good god. Play the fool and pay the ultimate price. It’s a good teaching moment and warning to share with your own kids if you have any.
30 comments
How is this anyone’s fault but the deceased
I suppose technology exists that can alert staff to someone climbing down onto the tracks and/or entering a tunnel. Perhaps that could be introduced at stations where people are more likely to be battered after a heavy night on the town. Cheaper and quicker to install than barrier-ing the entire platform.
If it was financially feasible to have platform screens or staff on every platform then I’m sure they’d do it. Perhaps the policy could be to deny entry to people until they have sobered up? That seems dangerous for staff though.
Has suicide been ruled out then? I was a severe alcoholic for 5 years and would never of done something that stupid whilst drunk. Somehow “curiosity killed the intoxicated cat” doesn’t sit well here. Condolences.
The unions will say staff the platform at great expense;
The consultants will say put in automated full body barriers at even greater expense;
The comments will say ‘let them die’ at the greatest expense (the cost of a human life);
I say why is everything so bloody expensive 🥲
“Ms Cunningham, who had used cocaine and ketamine before her death”
Why does TfL have to have a policy?
Why not make using coke and ketamine illegal for recreational use? /s.
Oh wait it is.
It’s a tragedy for the family and friends of the deceased.
It’s also awful for the TfL workers, contractors and emergency services had to deal with the aftermath and clean up.
Wow, what a way to go. Body left in tunnel for two days 🙁
Grim.
Just because people didn’t think she was suicidal doesn’t mean she wasnt. Saying this as someone who’s struggled with suidical ideation my whole life. People are clueless. Friends of Kurt Cobain said he wasn’t depressed!
She was an artist too – a good one at that. I bet she had a lot going on that people weren’t aware of. Rest in peace.
Where were her friends, how do you just let someone go home on their own in this state?
ah yes, a drunk, high (on 3 substances) person does something crazy and it’s tfl’s fault.
Why should TFL have to address this ? Sorry but bad shit happens when you get that wasted . I’m sorry for the deceased but we can’t police fucking everything
TfL’s policy should be “Drugs are bad, mmmmm’kay”.
Hard cases make bad law. Would it be nice if platforms were safer at little extra cost? Sure. But incidents like these are still vanishingly rare given the tube’s annual passenger numbers. Sounds like it was desperately bad luck staff members weren’t where they should have been for a few seconds
Might get flack for this… but do we really need a “policy”? We don’t have a policy for preventing drunk people falling down the stairs in their own home, or guillotining themselves attempting a 200kg bench PR after a heavy night of drinking. Surely just tell people not to get hammered and use the tube? This is on the individual.
Busy stations I agree should have barriers, though.
Lot of “why should we pay to put seatbelts in cars? It’s the drivers who cause accidents!” thinkers in this thread.
No sympathy what’s so ever tbh
How is someone telling tfl something a news article…
I’m a left-wing person who believes in a degree of state intervention.
But this case was both awful and ludicrous. This woman (not especially young, either) had consumed a *lot* of drugs of different kinds, and was then left by her friends and partner to make her own way home. She walked into the tube tunnel and died.
We need better drugs education by the state, but I fail to see how much more TfL could do to prevent this kind of accident.
Individual adults need to take some fucking responsibility for themselves.
The argument for better train-platform safety measures doesn’t come from this case, but from the statistics about the high number of injuries and accidents that take places each year on the underground. From last year:
*Data revealed by lawyers at Leigh Day after a Freedom of Information Act request has shown that, on average, on the London Underground there have been over 1,600 incidents a year at the “platform-train interface” over the past decade.*
*This amounts to approximately 133 incidents each month. These include falls from the platform, falls between the train and the platform, contact between a person and a train and persons caught in or struck by train doors, also referred to as “trap and drag incidents”. Figures from the past three years indicates an annual increase in incidents of about 13%.*
Silly girl should have laid off the ketamine
Two criticisms of this:
1) Wildly open to abuse and the whims of staff. Unless they’re paying for cops or training proper staff to carry out checks, it could just be some old rando deciding who gets in or not based on whether he likes the look of you/your kind.
2) The new phrase “You’re too drunk for the train, you better drive” would pop up.
I do get though that the overwhelming majority of problems staff and passengers have are caused by people on drink and drugs, and this would help them no end. I just can’t see how it would be fairly enforced without either;
creating either a crooked caste system, where they only let middle class commuters on rail,
or cost billions creating some kind of police/social worker force, advisory boards, etc. that could be trusted to carry it out.
i would have bet some money that there were at least some cameras with some sort of alert systems in place to detect unauthorised access to the tunnels from the stations
perhaps invest in that?
God knows I have been intoxicated in my life, but the idea of walking down a tube tunnel never crossed my mind… as much as I feel for this horrible loss of life, it seems to me that we cannot make the whole world intoxicated idiot-proof.
This case is probably one where it’s difficult to identify what TfL could’ve done differently, but [TfL also has a record of neglecting safety] (https://www.ft.com/content/75b42d56-f5a9-41ee-8d1e-9442609ffd37) ([Archive/no paywall link](https://archive.ph/IAkDD))
Though I’m curious about how it took two days for her body to be found, did the driver not notice he hit someone? Deep-level tunnels don’t have pits unlike platforms so it’s not like there’s anywhere for a body to go that wouldn’t interfere with trains.
Proper Darwin award , this one
Why is there no element of personal responsibility ever pushed for? The government can’t follow us around wiping our butts for us our whole lives
We also need an intoxicated policy for all high points and sharp objects
The tfl staff member failed to view the cctv due to an “urgent call” …at 3:30am.
🌈 Virtual Signaling 🌈
Achieve nothing
Prevents nothing
Make a few people in a room their job adds value to society
We cannot prevent stupid accidents like this.
Ho yes, then restrict alcohol sales and distribution then 🤷
There’s no policy for natural selection.
Take some responsibility for your own actions good god. Play the fool and pay the ultimate price. It’s a good teaching moment and warning to share with your own kids if you have any.
Comments are closed.