Todays "Nanny" State

[Irishswissernie]

I get a bit worked sometimes by todays Health & Safety brigade which sometimes seems to result in people taking no responsibility for their actions no matter how gormless and with the result that todays railways appear to run through a corridor protected by 8 ft high fences or walls covered with hideous graffiti . However I am busy copying my Swiss video from 2000-to 2009 onto MP4 and came across this piece where possibly a bit more attention to Health and Safety etc should possibly have been undertaken. HENDSCHIKEN 30 March 2008.

I wonder what its like today?  EDIT Just checked Google Earth, Still the same although the 'bike' track markers have gone.

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Irishswissernie

[NIR]

I don't think it's changed. I wandered from a public park straight onto some track in a European capital city not long back.

[NIR]

Stand behind the yellow lines!

[jhb171achill]

6 minutes ago, NIR said:

Stand behind the yellow lines!

Many of us would need to go on diets to stand on THAT platform!

[Edo]

1 hour ago, NIR said:

Stand behind the yellow lines!

runway for pigeons...............

[Noel]

Same in Germany last summer, walking parallel to the line, no fencing, and across the line to get into the town, no signs saying Verbotten, etc. Just common sense and a sense of self preservation keeping people and rail apart. Look at wexford quays. And years ago the line that ran through the streets of cork and mixed with road traffic

 

[Broithe]

I went camping on an official site on a island in the Loire, at Amboise, in 1990.

At that time, there was an electricity pylon right in the middle of the site, with absolutely no attempt at obstructing any climbers whatsoever.

Here on the Big Island, you wouldn't have needed any street lighting in the area, the glow from the incinerated teenagers would have sufficed.

[DiveController]

On 8/25/2020 at 11:24 AM, Irishswissernie said:

I get a bit worked sometimes by todays Health & Safety brigade which sometimes seems to result in people taking no responsibility for their actions no matter how gormless and with the result that todays railways appear to run through a corridor protected by 8 ft high fences or walls covered with hideous graffiti . However I am busy copying my Swiss video from 2000-to 2009 onto MP4 and came across this piece where possibly a bit more attention to Health and Safety etc should possibly have been undertaken. HENDSCHIKEN 30 March 2008

Quite honestly, I don't see the problem here. It's a railway line, stay the off of it, common sense, no matter how uncommon.

I think there is a attitudinal issue here .. in continental Europe people are used to this and stay out of the way, yet in other parts we have an issues with pedestrians, cyclists, motorists doing their damned best to get run over despite signs, bells, barriers, fences, that being the case, you're not going to stop them no matter how much you do.

Just clean up the mess and try to get back on schedule. I don't have a lot of sympathy for this degree of stupidity except where animals and children are involved, keep them at a distance, put brakes on your strollers (or your hands for that matter) and stop tying poor animals to the tracks at the top of the Glanmire tunnel!

Thank God we're in the letting off steam section , I suppose. I don't like a lot of the modern stuff but I do admire a well built efficient transit system, nice video Ernie

[Georgeconna]

"and stop tying poor animals to the tracks at the top of the Glanmire tunnel!." Is this actually happening, Never heard of it.

 

[burnthebox]

9 hours ago, DiveController said:

Quite honestly, I don't see the problem here. It's a railway line, stay the off of it, common sense, no matter how uncommon.

I think there is a attitudinal issue here .. in continental Europe people are used to this and stay out of the way, yet in other parts we have an issues with pedestrians, cyclists, motorists doing their damned best to get run over despite signs, bells, barriers, fences, that being the case, you're not going to stop them no matter how much you do.

Just clean up the mess and try to get back on schedule. I don't have a lot of sympathy for this degree of stupidity except where animals and children are involved, keep them at a distance, put brakes on your strollers (or your hands for that matter) and stop tying poor animals to the tracks at the top of the Glanmire tunnel!

Thank God we're in the letting off steam section , I suppose. I don't like a lot of the modern stuff but I do admire a well built efficient transit system, nice video Ernie

I WATCHED THAT AND WATCHED IT, AND WATCHED IT, BUT NOBODY WAS SQUASHED, MANGLED, REDUCED TO PULP,  OBLITERATED, TOTALLY WIPED OUT.!!!!  

BTB

[jhb171achill]

3 hours ago, Georgeconna said:

"and stop tying poor animals to the tracks at the top of the Glanmire tunnel!." Is this actually happening, Never heard of it.

 

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

Senior recalled being somewhere in the country years ago, possibly on the Blessington tram line (I don't remember), and there was a goat tethered by a rope to a running rail. Presumably the owner took it aside when the steam tram came along!

[minister_for_hardship]

What we have here are a cohort of folks, with the connivance of certain of the legal eagles, who go out of their way to "injure" themselves, exaggerate injuries and so forth in hopes of a payout that would not be entertained on the Continent. That's why we have to plaster signs over everything and anything, build fences etc.

[Robert Shrives]

In UK same applies or used to as current power base has been changing legislation to protect owners and reduce their workload to provide a safe environment while making it harder to get into the legal system to mount claims, this might dissuade the odd fraudster  - but much is reported settled out of court, yet prevents legitimate claims from some work groups, even with union assistance.  

Despite over 100 years of compulsory education adult illiteracy is still an issue and  with the welcome rise in English second language residents who work hard  to send monies home to even poorer  family - many countries aspire to the NHS  dream but until then the poor have to help themselves in an increasingly expensive word of haves and have nots.  Thus signage and corporate care responsibility  continue to have a place.  I might joke at the amount of signage about but any warning that saves life and limb  has to be worth it. 

A well known British industry leader safety mantra is worth a thought " home safe, everybody, every day. "

Stay safe ! 

Robert 

[Mayner]

New Zealand has a Government run an insurance based accident compensation (ACC) system which precludes claims for personal injuries, the no-blame state system basically covers medical and rehabilitation costs and up to 80% of loss of income. Courts also award reparations to victims in health and safety prosecutions. The system is intended to help people recover and get back to work/move on with their lives more quickly than by pursuing a claim through the court system.

The downside is the system reduces the incentive for businesses to pro-actively manage health and safety risks in the absence of higher insurance premiums arising from personal injury claims, the no fault system with its industry based rather than individual levies or premiums.

The legal requirement to securely fence railways in the UK and Ireland goes back to the dawn of the railway age while the rest of the World took a more pragmatic approach you enter the rail corridor at your own risk, the UK adapted a risk based approach to occupational health and safety following the publication of the Robbins Report in the late 1960s this approach was later adapted by Ireland and a number of Commonwealth Countries.

What ever people think of "elf and safety" the UK consistently has one of the lowest occupational death and injury rates in the developed World with Ireland and most EU countries trailing behind.

Edited September 4, 2020 by Mayner

[DiveController]

18 hours ago, Georgeconna said:

"and stop tying poor animals to the tracks at the top of the Glanmire tunnel!." Is this actually happening, Never heard of it.

 

Sadly, yes, a donkey iirc, a long time ago and hopefully an isolated event never to be repeated.

@minister_for_hardship Quite right minister, I'm sure old compo professionals are alive and 'well'

Edited September 5, 2020 by DiveController

[Noel]

Darwin explained why some keep themselves safe from harm using their own evolved wit, and sadly others do not.

Edited September 5, 2020 by Noel

[Warbonnet]

It also helps spare the driver the emotional trauma of having killed someone n the line, which I imagine would be quite significant.

[Broithe]

39 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

It also helps spare the driver the emotional trauma of having killed someone n the line, which I imagine would be quite significant.

There are supposed to be drivers on the Big Island into double figures.

On the marvellously interesting "Bombay Railway" programme, the driver they followed wasn't sure of his exact number, but he remembered when it had passed seventy...

[Mayner]

Railway workers often develop a gallows humor to keep their sanity like police or emergency services.

One of the more gory jobs is removing human remains from under a train, a mate of mine was a maintenance manager at a South London Depot one of the tricks played on new recruits was to plaster the underside of a unit with sausages or mince meat and wait to see the reaction.

[Broithe]

It's not just us...
 

 

[spudfan]

Damn cows..then there's all of that methane too.

[Broithe]

27 minutes ago, spudfan said:

Damn cows..then there's all of that methane too.

And the possibilities of IEDs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25922514

[DiveController]

On 9/5/2020 at 5:59 AM, Warbonnet said:

It also helps spare the driver the emotional trauma of having killed someone n the line, which I imagine would be quite significant.

True but happens on the road daily, same trauma I would imagine for a normally careful driver who might hit (say) a bicyclist or the like.

46 minutes ago, Broithe said:

And the possibilities of IEDs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25922514

Time to harvest that energy for something more useful udder than blowing off the roof

[Broithe]

43 minutes ago, DiveController said:

Time to harvest that energy for something more useful udder than blowing off the roof

Methane harvesting is growing. Sewage plants have done it for many decades and it's been spreading(!) into agriculture in recent years.

[DiveController]

Coal burners, oil burners, diesels and maybe a methane burning steam loco as clean fuel initiatives tighten up?  

[DiveController]

I think it pretty clear I was referring to accidental deaths which far outweighs suicides.

Since you asked, they do happen reasonably frequently with bridge jumpers and emergency personnel deal with both.

You imagine the trauma experienced by the driver would be quite significant and I can tell you from experience that you're right. Let's leave it there maybe?

[Broithe]

1 hour ago, Broithe said:

Methane harvesting is growing. Sewage plants have done it for many decades and it's been spreading(!) into agriculture in recent years.

11 minutes ago, DiveController said:

Coal burners, oil burners, diesels and maybe a methane burning steam loco as clean fuel initiatives tighten up?  

 

The explosive risks seem to be quite well contained these days, but I do remember this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbeystead_disaster - happening.

I've always been surprised that the general drains don't cause "issues" more than they do - I always wince when I see a dog-end flicked into a grid...

"Some lads I knew" once set light to a cess pit with a concrete slab 'roof', with two rows of four holes - it took us, sorry, them, hours to finally put it out. Every time it looked over, it would erupt from a different vent.

[Broithe]

29 minutes ago, DiveController said:

 a methane burning steam loco 

It is probably more efficient to burn the methane in an internal combustion engine, rather than using it to boil water for a steam engine.

There are examples already running - https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/biogas/scandinavia-boasts-world-s-first-biogaspowered-train

[DiveController]

Granted, Jim. My comment on the preserved kettles was a bit tongue in cheek 

[Broithe]

3 hours ago, DiveController said:

Granted, Jim. My comment on the preserved kettles was a bit tongue in cheek 

I could imagine vast cattle trains crossing the pampas, entirely self powered via a conveyor system, leading to a digester wagon behind the engine...