Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 11th April 2024 Issue no. 1109

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Swedish cleaner goes off the rails!

That old adage that if anything goes wrong/missing, blame the cleaner, proved true on Tuesday when a cleaner in Sweden stopped working on the Stockholm commuter train she was cleaning, climbed into the driver's seat and drove it away. Needless to say the woman, who was in her 20s, had not missed her vocation; the train left the rails and ended up embedded in a three-story luxury apartment building.

Tomas Hedenius, spokesman for train operator Arriva, told reporters that the woman - employed by a contractor - had been cleaning at the Neglinge train station, two stops from the end of the line at Saltsjöbaden, when at about 03.00 she decided to drive off in the four-car train. Things went well for about a mile until the end of the line was reached and the woman was unable to stop the train, which continued some 90ft before it was brought to a halt by the building.

The families inside the building were shocked but unhurt; sadly the cleaner was seriously injured and was airlifted to hospital where she was arrested on suspicion of endangering the public.

Image courtesy of Jonas Ekstromer / Scanpix Sweden / Reuters

17th January 2013