Sausage Roll blamed for worker taking a day off

[Daymoe]

Sausage roll blamed for worker having day off

The Daily Telegraph

April 10, 2007 06:12am

* CityRail driver blinded by a sausage roll
* Driver punches his face while trying to close window
* Driver burns two fingers on windscreen demister

THE train now due on platform two is running 15 minutes late because the driver has been blinded by a sausage roll.

That's the sort of message commuters could expect if CityRail was honest about the reasons for lateness.

The Daily Telegraph has obtained a long list of dubious – sometimes comical – excuses used by Sydney train drivers and guards for getting off work mid-shift.

"Driver reports eye injury most likely sustained whilst eating a hot sausage roll . . . he has sensitive eyes and may have rubbed an irritant into them during crib," one report noted.

It does not detail whether tomato sauce was the "irritant" in question.

It is fair to assume passengers on that service were irritated by the subsequent 14-minute delay that resulted from the sausage roll fiasco.

"Catalogue of -ups"

It is just one incident in a catalogue of -ups between 2005 and 2007. They include a driver punching himself in the nose trying to close a window.

Another driver burned two fingers on his windscreen demister as he tried to dislodge a stuck key from the door.

Nearly a dozen drivers and guards stepped straight off trains unaware there was no platform.

Incidents range from the heroic – a female driver carried on with a Cronulla-bound service despite being bitten behind the ear by a spider – to a male driver being replaced because he had an eyelash stuck in his eye.

A handful of drivers reported being unable to go on because of sore fingers. One guard had an ambulance meet him at Marulan after a hot microwave meal burned his arm.

An ice pack had to be delivered to Hurstville after a guard reported that he had strained a hamstring.

Although the slower timetable has improved punctuality, lateness persists, with almost one in 10 trains running more than five minutes behind schedule in February.

A spokesman for RailCorp boss Vince Graham said there were always going to be some staffing problems in an operation the size of RailCorp.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...34-421,00.html