Public transport Father rescued his three-year-old child at the last minute in the Helsinki metro – The dangerous feature is now to be removed from the system

Helsinki and a solution to the serious security threat to the Espoo metro is being found. Especially on the oldest metro trains, there is a flaw that has led to accidents: if the driver presses the button to open the wrong doors, the doors will also open on the side of the metro shaft.

HKL is now preparing to tender for a system that would solve the security problem.

HKL has years, whether or not a security system should be provided to prevent the risk of incorrect opening of doors.

The discussion about the need for a security system has been sustained, for example, by the dangerous situation that took place in the autumn of 2018 in Helsinki’s Itäkeskus.

A three-year-old boy was in Itäkeskus to fall from the subway to the track. The driver had accidentally opened the doors on the wrong side of the subway. The boy had staggered toward the open door. However, the boy’s father had time to grab the boy.

HKL stated at the time that the father had prevented the major injury. The case was described as “very dangerous”. Served as head of HKL’s traffic unit Arttu Kuukankorpi recently confirmed to HS that the danger was caused by the driver’s finger slipping on the wrong door release button.

Kuukankorpi told HS that error situations are not uncommon.

Hazards the door security system has aroused cross-haulage within HKL, and project preparation has taken years. HS has seen part of the email exchange with HKL’s CEO Ville Lehmuskoski in November 2019 considers the profitability of a security solution in relation to the risk of loss of human life.

The subject of the emails was an investigation report into opening the subway doors from the wrong side. In his message, Lehmuskoski named the price estimate of the system at 700,000 euros. In the same message, he wrote that if the system were to end up, it would have to cost less than € 500,000.

“Otherwise, society would achieve greater benefits by using the same amount of money for another topic, such as improving safety,” Lehmuskoski wrote.

Now Lehmuskoski is asking HS to check the status of the project, HKL’s fleet manager From Heidi Heikkilä. Lehmuskoski says he does not know at what stage the security system is. He weighs in that to his knowledge it has not been done.

“Is it an appropriate investment or is it more appropriate to spend the money on something else?” Lehmuskoski asks.

Finnish Transport and Communications Agency specialist Hanna Strömmer says that the calculated value of human life in a road accident in the public sector is now € 2.6 million.

Lehmuskoski emphasizes that the metro has been in operation for about 40 years, and there has been no accident that led to personal injuries.

“When tax money is used to a limited extent, you have to carefully assess what is the smartest way to use the money,” Lehmuskoski says.

HKL fleet manager Heidi Heikkilä says that the design of the safety system has continued. According to him, the preparation “did not lead to a decision not to make the system, but to make more accurate risk calculations”.

It has therefore been studied what a system that prevents doors from being opened from the wrong side would cost in order to save enough lives in relation to other security arrangements in Helsinki. According to Heikkilä, when the project plan was drawn up, the first price estimate was EUR 1.5 million.

Since then, however, in the words of Heikkilä, those who have supplied security systems have been challenged about “what kind of system could be built with the amount in use”.

That price estimate would be around EUR 500 000. HKL is preparing to tender for the system.

In the processAccording to Heikkilä, when the new system has been sought, the safety of using doors has been emphasized in the training of metro drivers. Stickers have been added to the metro doors that prohibit leaning on the doors.

When old trains are overhauled, the door release buttons are changed so that the control works in the same way on different trains.