Railway worker's legs severed by train

[John Ashworth]

A salutory warning to shunters everywhere...

Railway worker's legs severed by train

Thursday August 23, 2007
The Guardian

A railway worker's legs were severed yesterday when he slipped under a train at Harlow station, Essex. The man, in his 40s, was helping to manoeuvre a train into sidings when he slipped underneath a carriage. Essex fire service said the severed limbs had been recovered in the hope surgeons would be able to save them. Mark Samuels, the firefighter in charge of the incident, said: "The cut was clean, so the legs were taken with the casualty to hospital in the hope that medical teams may be able to sew them back on." A police and Health and Safety Executive inquiry is under way.

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