The Railway Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

Data recorders

5.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), a person shall not operate a train which is being used for the carriage of fare paying passengers on a railway unless there is in service on that train a suitable data recorder for the purpose of capturing in respect of that train the following information—

(a) the speed of the train;

(b) the application of the brakes and the application of power (whether such applications are manual or otherwise);

(c) the indications displayed to the driver by any train protection system, automatic warning system and driver reminder appliance

(d) the actions of the driver to acknowledge and display any train protection system and any automatic warning system;

(e) the actions of the driver to activate, deactivate and disable any driver reminder appliance;

(f) the time at which any of the data referred to in sub-paragraphs (a) to (e) above is recorded.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply until 31^st December 2007 provided that a programme for the installation and bringing into use of suitable data recorders has been approved by the Department and is being implemented.

(3) In any proceedings against a person for an offence for contravening paragraph (1) it shall be a defence for that person to prove that—

(a) at the relevant time the data recorder had become defective; and

(b) the train had commenced its journey before the discovery of the fault or is being driven without passengers to a place for the purpose of repair.

(4) In this regulation—

“automatic warning system” has the same meaning as in regulation 4(1); and

“driver reminder appliance” means equipment fitted to train which, when activated by the driver, prevents the application of power to that train.