The RailStaff Awards 2024

Anthony Phythian

Network Rail (High Output)

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Nominations for Samaritans Lifesaver Award

Philip Hawkins

Said the following about Anthony Phythian:

“Anthony Phythian, Development Engineer for High Output in our IP Track business, recently assisted in what appears to have been a suicide attempt by a member of the public. His impressive awareness of his surroundings and his quick thinking in a crisis went a long way in preventing a tragic event from occurring on our infrastructure.

On 16 June, Anthony was working at Market Harborough station and was due to undertake a cab ride from Market Harborough to Luton Parkway, a busy through-fare line on the East Midlands route. Anthony went to the station car park desk to purchase a parking ticket, and noticed a man looking a bit dishevelled and approaching platform 2. As Anthony purchased his parking ticket, he heard the announcement on the tannoy advising people to stand back from the platform as the next train on platform 2 would not stop there. Anthony immediately thought why is the man on platform 2 if no train is due to stop there? He spoke to a member of the station staff to raise his concern and then approached platform 2 himself, when the man approached Anthony and offered him his suicide note. Anthony did not take the note and asked him why he wanted to do this, and if he really did want to do it. He suggested he shouldn’t as England were due to play that night in the Euros and surely he didn’t want to miss that. The man said he had had enough of all this and wanted to end it all, at which point Anthony asked him if he had anyone he could talk to. As he said this, he turned his head and a Samaritans poster was directly behind them on the platform wall. After a few more minutes of Anthony continuing to talk to the man, he managed to steer the man away from the platform and towards the exit of the station, at which point he advised the British Transport Police of what had happened, as well as the train driver. The train driver was hugely complimentary about what Anthony had done, and then Anthony continued on with his working day.

Later that day, Anthony was conscious of listening out for any reports about incidents on that route in case the man might have returned to the station. He was mightily relieved when he didn’t hear of any such reports.

Afterwards, Anthony wondered if at the time he should have contacted the signaller to block the line based on what he believed the man was intending to do, and he made the comment that no training is provided for such circumstances, so in hindsight and on balance, he believes he did the right thing at the time. This event highlights the need for some kind of training or briefing to enable our employees to deal with such events the best way they can if they do find themselves needing to act, but in this case it is clear that if the man was intending to go through with ending his life, Anthony prevented that from happening.“