Man died after being hit by four Tube trains when he tripped off platform
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A passenger was killed after he was struck by four trains at an east London Underground station before being found. The accident happened at Stratford Underground station on Boxing Day 2023 after a passenger fell onto the tracks and out of sight. He was hit four times before trains were stopped, a report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch found.
![[A view of the train tracks and a Tube train arriving at Stratford Underground station.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236170116-add0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
It added that a ‘reduced alertness or distraction’ of tain operators could have played a role in why trains were not stopped sooner. The passenger was previously named as Brian Mitchell, a 72-year-old pensioner originally from Edinburgh who was living in London.
![[London Underground Stratford station with a Tube train on the platform.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236168894-cb9d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Mr Mitchell was sitting on a platform bench at about 2.45pm before he stood up and ‘immediately stumbled forwards and fell from the platform onto the adjacent track,’ the report said. Unable to get to safety, he ‘lay on the track undiscovered for around 5 minutes before being struck by an arriving train, which then stopped normally in the platform.’.
![[Stratford Station sign in east London, Stratford.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236168869-36df.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
He was then struck by a further three trains as they entered the station platform and travelled ‘through the location where the passenger was lying.’. At this point, Mr Mitchell was ‘fatally injured.’. When the pensioner ‘stumbled forwards’ and fell, he was alone on the platform so there was ‘no intervention made to prevent the first train from arriving,’ the investigators found.
The driver of the first train failed to see him on the tracks ‘possibly because their level of attention was reduced due to the use of automatic train operation,’ the report said, adding that the operator may also have been distracted by the presence of another operator on the platform.
