I really hope the chap didn’t loose this job, I suspect he did however. ASLEF & RMT policy is no defence against D&A offences or mobile in the cab.
I’m of the view once you mess up, you never do it again. No punishment will take away how lucky both drivers where that night, I fear the driver will loose literally everything following the events of that night.
Those who seem to take delight, and pass judgement should case their minds back to the last time they used their phone or sped. Yes he’s a professional driver at the controls of a 126t locomotive, no he shouldn’t of been using his phone, yes at least two people could of been killed that night.
But, he needs support not punishment - you can bet your life he’ll never use his mobile at work again.
A face-to-face book-on is preferable in so many ways.
Even if he’d continued with his duty, the manager might have given some words of reassurance, either by clarifying the situation, or simply something like “don’t worry lots of people are in the same boat, if you have difficulties we’ll try and be flexible”.
Train cabs are a terrible place when people have worries on their mind, as these worries tend to amplify and circulate. Trying to address the problem wasn’t a bad strategy in itself, just not whilst actually driving the train.
Are there many places at crew book on face to face these days?
Last time I booked on face to face (when I was train crew) was 2004!