BBC NEWS | UK | Main points of Southall report

Professor John Uff made 93 recommendations in his 226-page report into the 1997 Southall rail crash which killed seven people.

The recommendations included:

Research into the human behaviour studies relating to driver performance;

Automatic Warning System (AWS) to be regarded as vital to the continued running of a train;

AWS and other in-train safety equipment should not fail in service through preventable causes;

Airline-style safety briefings should be adopted for train passengers on a trial basis;

Automatic train protection (ATP) should be maintained on Great Western lines;

Extension to the present coverage of ATP on Great Western should be considered;

New authorities to oversee projects including AWS and ATP should be set up;

Technical investigation of serious rail accidents should generally be controlled by the Railway Inspectorate;

Driver training should include driving in abnormal conditions, including driving without AWS working;

Railtrack must ensure that rules and standards applicable to train companies and drivers are clear and unambiguous;

Great Western should regularly monitor the workload of all its maintenance staff;

Railtrack should ensure that checks on the alignment and siting of signals are made at least annually;

All parties in the industry must ensure that paper-based procedures do not become divorced from reality;

Routes for evacuation away from an accident should take into account the need to avoid distressing scenes;

Identification of victims should be speeded up and information released to relatives at the earliest possible time.


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