Engineer killed while working on travelator at London Waterloo station

Friday, September 20, 2019

Very early Wednesday morning, an engineer was killed while working at Waterloo station in the British capital London. Emergency services received the call at about 2:20 a.m. local time (0120 UTC), according to British Transport Police (BTP), but the man was found dead at the scene. He was working on a travelator — a moving walkway — at the station when the incident occurred.

Waterloo station is in central London and is part of the London Underground mass transit system. London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade were the first responders and already there when BTP arrived, by BTP's report. The man was a 44-year-old contract worker from Cambridgeshire, England.

The travelator allows passengers to transfer between the Northern and Jubilee lines of the Underground. Transport for London (TfL) told morning rush-hour passengers to take a longer way around instead of the travelator.

BTP started an investigation of the death, which they treated as not suspicious but unexplained. Detective Inspector Darren Gough said, "This is a truly tragic incident, and our deepest condolences are with the man’s family." An official from TfL stated: "We are working with colleagues in the British Transport Police following an incident at Waterloo station in the early hours of this morning."

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, gave his condolences via Twitter, adding, "An urgent enquiry into what happened is underway to ensure it cannot happen again."

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Sources

Emma Brazell. "Sadiq Khan calls for ‘urgent inquiry’ after engineer killed at Waterloo" — Metro, September 18, 2019
"Engineer killed while working on travelator at Waterloo station" — Sky News, September 18, 2019
PA Media. "Engineer dies while working on travelator at Waterloo station" — The Guardian, September 18, 2019
Sadiq Khan. "@SadiqKhan" — Twitter, September 18, 2019

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