Thought Emergency stop handle was toilet flush

[John Ashworth]

From uk.railways newsgroup:

"Thought Emergency stop handle was toilet flush"

"thundering along on 10am Bristol to London. Somewhere between Swindon and Didcot train comes to rapid halt from line speed. Guard announces someone has pulled emergency stop handle. Later announcement that someone in toilet had pulled handle assuming it was the flush lever. Guard repeated announcement 4 times just to rub it in. I mean WTF the handle is red and on the external wall above head height - how does
anyone mistake it for the flush button. Guy next to me suggested with a train of 500 people the most stupid of that 500 would be very stupid indeed. Sadly I never got to see who did it."

"I did see once in a CT 158 someone had graffiti-d "pull handle to flush" on the emergency handle, and removed all the stickers that indicated that it was in fact the emergency handle. We made it from Birmingham to Nottingham without incident, however."

"I don't think I'd be that stupid... But the first time I encountered electronic push button toilets on trains I found them an ergonomic disaster. So I eventually learned to put up with a far from ideal design - but why not design it properly!"

For those who haven't been on a UK train recently, the high-tech toilets with everything, including doors and flushing, controlled by push buttons can be quite confusing.