Recruitment
“Terry is a train guard for Virgin Trains East Coast. Exactly 1 year ago, on 14th June 2014, Terry was dispatching his train from platform 10 at York station. There were alot of train enthusiasts at the end of the platforms at this time. Terry had given his 1st tip and shut the doors. As he went to take his 2nd tip to close the local door he heard alot of shouting, it was coming from the train enthusiasts at the end of platforms 9 and 10. They appeared to be trying to alert staff. Terry thought at this point that a particular train was maybe approaching the station and they were getting excited but then Terry saw the image of a lady walking off the platform down to the 4 foot. She was heading south away from the station, ignoring all alerts from staff and the enthusiasts.
Terry immediately stopped the dispatch of his train, shouted to the lead dispatcher on the platform, 'EMERGENCY, we have someone down on the tracks'. Instinct and adrenalin kicked in and Terry knew he had to urgently get to this lady. He ran to the end of the platform and had to cross several running lines to get to her but was very aware of his own safety and took great care between each 4 foot to ensure there was no traffic immediately in sight.
When Terry reached the lady, her head was looking downwards and she appeared very vacant and unresponsive. He then reached for her hand and spoke very calmly to her 'please come with me', and led her out of the 4 foot.
By this time the lead dispatcher came to the end of platform 10 and shouted to Terry that the signal box had been alerted to stop all traffic and that British Transport Police were on their way.
Terry continued to speak to the lady at the side of the track. He tried to keep her calm and attempted to strike up a conversation. He was asking her name, age, where was she from. Her arms were all scarred and Terry feared that she may try to struggle. Teryy was aware that he was the only person with her and he had to continue talking to her until help arrived. At this point Terry noticed that the lady had a t-shirt on with animal print. He decided to use a distraction technique and started to talk to her about animals. He asked the lady if she had a pet. At this point the lady began to respond to Terrys questions and they began talking about her pet. This calmed the situation further until help arrived from BTP.
Terrys actions on this day avoided what is all to common on our railways, a fatality that effects so many people. Also through Terrys actions he was able to get the help that this lady so desperately needed whilst remaining calm.
(Unbeknown to Terry at the time, his dramatic life saving action was filmed by the train enthusiasts on platform 10 and uploaded onto Youtube. It can be viewed by typing into Youtube 'possible attempted suicide at York station')“
“The Lifesaver award seeks to recognise those individuals who have intervened to potentially save the life of a vulnerable person on the rail network, and to demonstrate that talking and listening to someone in need can make a huge difference. Samaritans’ aims of breaking down barriers to intervening and the myths about suicide are now imbedded in rail culture with over 10,500 staff trained, while the number of interventions are up by 34% from April 2015. Empowering staff to support vulnerable members of the public, colleagues, friends or family remains a core part of the relationship between the rail industry and Samaritans and The Lifesaver award is an opportunity to highlight this crucial on-going work as well as encouraging rail staff to be champions for our service.”
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