Great Western Coffee Shop

A good spot by the Fact Compiler over at the the Railway Eye blog:

http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2010/09/pointless-signs-bristol-temple-meads.html

 ;D

These signs have been there for a while.  They went up after a someone was running down the stairs and tripped and died.  An understandable attempt to try and stop it happening again i think.

Indeed: see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/3732807.stm

Edit: Apologies Chris, hit 'Modify' instead of 'Quote'

Whilst of course I have sympathy with everyone involved in that incident and their families, you really can't legislate for every possibility like this by slapping signs all over the place.

Stairs are something which the majority of people use many times a day...that's why we get complacent and don't necessarily look where we're going. Sticking a sign on the wall telling you how to negotiate the stairs doesn't help anyone:  if they're distracted, they're not going to read it, and indeed it may even create an additional hazard when someone turns to read a fairly detailed notice on a busy stairway.

Accidents happen, sadly, end of story. Whilst signs like the one depicted may be erected with the best of intentions (or then again they may just be mindless backside-covering based on a flawed interpretation of health and safety legislation) they achieve nothing and just contribute even more to an excessive "information overload" situation. Can you really imagine a situation in which someone's running for their train, but then stops to read the patronizing notice posted by the stairs and decides to walk slowly and carefully, whilst holding the handrails? No, neither can I.

That incident was over 6 years ago, but the signs on the stairs are a fairly recent addition.

I could not agree more with Blakey's post above!

I seem to remember that there's some similar signs at Bristol Parkway (I don't go there very often), but that there's a wide set of stairs with no central handrail, which makes the "hold the handrail" message fairly pointless.

More generally, is there any rule about how wide a stair can be before it needs a central handrail?

No problem.  ::) ;) ;D

I only posted that particular link to reference a source for the sad story about the stairway fatality at BRI.  I agree that the introduction of those signs on the stairs is, unfortunately, rather unlikely to catch the attention of anyone who is already distracted by searching for their ticket as they hurry for a train.

CfN.  :-X

Is thaks to the ambulance chasers!

As soon as someone justifies a sign like this on stafety grounds they are automaticaly implying that all other stairs without signs are dangerous. 

There is an abundance of over punctuation on that sign.  It looks horrible.

On the contrary, they've left out the comma between 'SLIPS' and 'TRIPS'... ::)

I think the misuse of capital letters doesn't help either.  Why has "the" on Lifts not got a capital whereas "The" on Stairs has?  And what makes Lifts and Stairs special enough to have capital letters?

I'm glad that the minutia of the grammar on said sign has caught the attention of forum members. I was extra careful today when traversing the stairs at Temple Meads, although I have to admit that I held on to neither handrail. (Well maybe only briefly...)

Now has the sign's message been taken in? Stairs are apparently very dangerous things, despite most of us having them in our houses.

Grammatically or otherwise, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!  ::) :P

There is a sign on the Disabled Toilet on platform 3 at Temple Meads, which resembles something along the lines of:

"This door must be kept shut at all times"

Bit of an own goal there, Just how are you ment to get into the thing exactly if the door is to remain closed at all times...?! ;D

It was probably written by the same illiterate who is writing the notices that are posted at closed booking offices, viz. http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5504.msg75575#msg75575 (http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5504.msg75575#msg75575)

FGW must have lots of staff in Swindon who can spell and use grammar correctly. So why is it that these notices are apparently composed by some clown who failed GCSE English, and not proof-read by anybody at any stand in the process between being typed and screwed to the wall?

And yet another example of FGWs attention to detail:

(http://www.uploadlibrary.com/FirstGreatWestern/7425SeptENews/Ticket_Promo01.jpg)

Penzanze?  ::)

Someone been drinking too much zider me thinks  ;D