Ken Young

Said the following about Emergency Intervention Units:

“The Emergency Intervention Units (EIU) are specialist blue light vehicles crewed by a Police Officer and a Mobile Operations Manager from Network Rail. There are currently six EIU’s operating in and around the London Area based on the Wessex, Anglia, Kent, Sussex, Western and LNE-EM routes. The units operate on a response and proactive patrol method undertaking preventative patrols when not responding to incidents. During the 2017/18 year the teams responded to 1,429 incidents with a large range of incidents types from dealing with trespassers, suicidal interventions, supporting police operations with providing safe access for searches, adverse weather, with the February 2018 “Beast of the East” being a particular challenging period and also dealing with Railway Infrastructure incidents such as level crossing failures, stalled and trapped trains, including evacuating the trains amongst many other types of incidents including those which are deemed as traumatic such as persons being struck by trains.

Below are some samples from each of the routes of some of the many incidents they have dealt with alongside our colleagues in BTP, Home Office Forces, Fire and Ambulance Services, Network Rail and Train Operating Companies but also includes liaison with the local communities, local NHS trusts, business in and around the Rail Network and also the travelling public

Monday 18 June 2018 Loughborough Junction – Persons hit by train x3

The Kent EIU were alerted to a report via a train driver of body parts, possibly involving more than one person on the tracks near to Loughborough Junction. In attendance the (Mobile Incident Officer) MIO discovered 3 deceased persons, all with injuries consistent with being struck by a train. It was apparent the incident had occurred some considerable time earlier on in the morning. Sussex EIU also attended and Life was pronounced extinct by an EIU officer, who later assisted Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) with Forensic body recovery. Joint partnership working by Network Rail (NR) and BTP minimised the impact to the travelling public by keeping the incident confined to a small area and supporting the Police investigation. This was a tragic and complex incident which attracted considerable public and media interest. The NR feedback including that of the public around the response and train service was largely positive.

Saturday 17 February 2018, two people died when their car was struck by a Southern train at Barnes Green level crossing in Sussex.

The Sussex EIU attended the horrific incident at Barnes Green Level Crossing where the driver went around the barriers while down and was struck by a train with the vehicle being severely damaged and set alight. The Joint working with the EIU MIO and officer allowed for a safe working process to be put in place with the officers. The officers themselves assisted the CSI in the forensic recovery of the deceased while the MIO provided the support from the industry with the team returning over the following days and while doing so identified a local resident who was still suffering from the impact of the incident. They were able to provide suitable support for the resident, who was feeling severely depressed, and was grateful for the EIU team’s efforts in providing support.

Thursday 29 March 2018 – distressed female

The Western EIU were driving from Langley to Iver, when a female was seen on the road bridge over the canal at Langley with no coat or shoes on. It was dark, wet and very cold. The team stopped to check the person was alright which she was not. At the time she was on the phone to a suicide prevention call centre and was about to jump. The female back to our vehicle to warm up, called LAS and had a chat with her. The female was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and taken to a place of safety

July 2016 – Suspicious incidents

Although an old incident this was unusual as involved some suspicious explosions ongoing on the rail Network within the London Area of Wessex Route. Although the subsequent investigations revealed there was nothing untoward there were initially concerns about the explosions. The Wessex EIU was tasked by the Senior Investigating Officer overseeing the investigation with undertaking a track check of the area. Subsequently it was discovered that the size of the area resulted in 30 miles of tracks to check. Over a period of five days the team developed a plan to check this whole area and in close partnership with the EIU team they achieved all but 200 meters of track checks during daylight hours without causing a single minute of delays to the trains running at the time. This was a considerable achievement and a rather unusual situation but shows how a close working partnership can develop a solvable plan while reducing the inconvenience to the industry with minimal or no impact.

January 2018 – Fatality and Incident response stretcher

The Anglia EIU were the first EIU to use the new incident response Stretcher during a fatality and were the first Team to use the stretcher in England (Stretcher already in use in Scotland). It is estimated that 20 minutes time was saved due to location of deceased and distance to nearest access point. The result of this use as encouraged the remainder of the routes to invest in the stretcher for other EIU teams.

October 2017 – Robbery

The LNE-EM EIU attended an incident at Letchworth involving a knife robbery and the suspect running off down the tracks resulted in the MIO getting to scene within 9 minutes and providing safety critical support for Hertfordshire Police Firearms and Dog units. The speedy reactions and systems put in place resulted in the requirement for a block for 25 minutes, albeit the subject was not located at the time. Hertfordshire Police were impressed with the working practice and how the Team operate.“