London Banter - One under

On Oct 16, 11:47 pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 16 Oct, 22:43, Paul Corfield wrote:

On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:06:15 -0700, alex_t

wrote:
Does any one know details of "one under" at Holborn (Central Line)
today? Was it suicide or somebody fell from the platform?

Won't know until tomorrow when I see the Daily Report. The vast
majority of one under incidents are non suspicious and are suicide
attempts.

One acquaintance of mine several years ago had a close working
relationship with a team of BTP officers - this acquaintance has
repeatedly recounted the advice he was given by a BTP Inspector that
one should not stand too close to the platform edge as several people
each year get pushed on to the tracks.

This doesn't fit in with anything else I've ever heard so I've pretty
much dismissed it as inaccurate, my acquaintance's memory of this
advice perhaps being somewhat faulty or muddled up with a specific
incident or two. Nonetheless this piece of third-hand advice has stuck
in my head.

There have indeed been a very small number of incidents where
passengers have been intentionally pushed on to the tracks, but they
are as I understand it very limited in number and always make the
news.

I was in that train and heard the screams - the first one was very
loud, which makes me think it was the jumping person...

Oh dear - not good. Never experienced that.

By the way, my best wishes to the driver! I can only imagine what
emotional state he is now. He was clearly shaken, but started
informing passengers about evacuation almost immediately, etc.

There is a good system of support for drivers who've experienced a one
under. The sentiment is appreciated though. You might wish to consider
dropping an E Mail through the customer services centre to say you
thought the driver did well in the circumstances.

I was at Leicester Square station last year when there was a one-under
somewhere along the Charing X branch and services were suspended.

I also noted the somewhat absurd usage of the phrase "Due to a
*customer* under a train [etc]..." - customer is definitely the wrong
word to be used in this context.

I left the station to make a mobile phone call and on returning (to
get the Picc line) the announcement had been changed to "...a
*passenger* under a train..." - a bit better, but nonetheless still
the wrong word. I wasn't quite sure why the stock phrase "...person
under a train..." wasn't used - which is the best way of phrasing it I
reckon. I still find it a bit haunting to hear though.

Is "passenger action" ever used as a euphemism for one-unders too, or
would that be more likely to indicate the emergency stop button being
pressed on a train (because a person had been taken ill etc)?

P.S. Still don't understand though why Piccadilly station had to be
closed as well.

I assume you mean the Picc Line at Holborn. Standard practice to allow
the emergency services and coroner / undertakers full and unimpeded
access so they fulfill their duties.

One last question - and this is a difficult one to phrase sensitively,
so I'm sorry if people consider it a bit out of order. I was once told
that a number of people who jump in fact survive, albeit having got
fairly mangled - possibly having been extracted from under the train
having had the bulk of the carriage unscrewed from the chassis (wrong
terms to use I'm sure). Is there any truth in any of this?

I have to say that I have great respect for those that deal with the
effects of one unders. I once saw several firefighters emerge from a
tube station having dealt with an incident, and they all looked pretty
shaken by it.

There have been a fair few one unders this month already. I think the
Northern also had one in the same area on Monday.

A number of people do indeed survive, with the train being jacked up
or shoe gear removed to aid their removal. Tubeline's ERU have
specialist lifting gear where as the LFB will usually just get stuck
in and cut bits off.

Some people deal with the after affects in different ways, but at the
time of dealing/managing the incidents like this many personal
feelings do tend to be put at the back of your mind.
You don't know what you'll do until it happens, so far I havent been
on the ground for one.