Document

Author
Suganth Rajendra Kumar
Abstract
There is no clear definition in the UK rail industry for a sharp edge when it comes to non-rigid metallic edges such as sheet metal edges. In Bombardier Transportation UK, this was managed by a joint safety and human factors assessment to determine the level of risk posed by such edges to train users. An on-train subjective risk assessment was done based on three parameters; access, worst case scenarios and sharpness. This case study highlights the limitations of this approach by comparing it with an existing standard; the children’s product safety specification ‘Sharp Points and Sharp Edges’ (Code of Federal Regulations, 2018). Lessons have been learned from this comparison, which will feed into future process improvement.