He clashed with Robert Owen QC over the action taken by signallers immediately after signal 109 was passed at red.
Relatives of the victims gasped when Heinz Winters, signalling manager at Slough, said Railtrack signallers were trained to wait and see if a train stopped of its own accord after passing a signal at red.
It had been suggested that in an emergency it might be better for signallers to radio directly to drivers before changing the signals to stop trains.
"Larger and slower predator species may not be able to decode these signals if their visual system isn't fast enough, giving the signallers a secret channel of communication".
Related: RMT members to vote on strike action after rejecting Network Rail pay offer A commitment to no compulsory redundancies would be extended only until the end of 2016, and unions fear that signallers' jobs could be in jeopardy after that.
RMT believes that signallers' jobs will be in jeopardy when centralised control centres come into operation in the next few years.
Industrial action by Network Rail workers, including track engineers and maintenance staff as well as signallers, would seriously disrupt most rail services.
In practice, the interval is much shorter, especially for signallers and engineers who are heavily in demand.
Then I ran across the road and dived into the welter of mud and water, followed by Dunham and – at intervals – by the eight signallers and runners.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union include signallers and maintenance workers.
In truth, like in the US, women have been effectively operating in quasi-combat roles for some time and there are already combat-experienced female signallers, drivers, medics and pilots.
