Ticket barrier at High Barnet Tube station injures pensioner

A gate at High Barnet station “slammed shut” on Carl Grahame as he was walking through it to travel on the Northern line to East Finchley on January 5, leaving him with two large “friction tears”.

After taking himself to hospital, the pensioner required 26 adhesive sutures to close up wounds on his right hand and left forearm.

He has since reported the incident to TfL citing safety concerns, and is considering asking the transport body for compensation.

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The incident took place at High Barnet Tube station (Image: Google)

The transport body claimed that an investigation has since found that the gate in question was "working correctly". 

Mr Grahame, who used his freedom pass to open the ticket barrier and was walking with a stick, said elderly and younger passengers could be at risk if the same thing happened again.

He said: “I’m sure I’m not the only person who has been injured by those gates.

“My hand was a metre from the ground and if that had been a child that would have been their face.”

Describing the incident, Mr Grahame, who currently lives in High Barnet but grew up in Muswell Hill, said that the barrier “absolutely caught” him at around midday.

He added: “I had two choices – one was to push forward, which I tried, and the gates didn’t budge; the other was to try and extricate myself backwards.

“It was as I was moving backwards from the doors, which hadn’t fully closed but had clamped me, that they were gripping me harder and harder.

“It’s that which broke the skin and gave me a friction tear.”

Mr Grahame said station staff bandaged up his injuries with a “bundle of absorbent paper” and offered to call him an ambulance.

But he claims he declined this offer so that he could clear his head and “walk slowly” to Barnet Hospital – a mile-long journey.

Mr Grahame added that while he thinks it will take a while for the damage to heal, he is “not someone who gets terribly excited about injuries”.

Carl Grahame needed adhesive sutures after the incident (Image: Carl Grahame)

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He said: “Whatever happens I try and take it in my stride.

“To be honest it probably looked worse from a medical point of view than it was, but it was quite a large area of skin on my right hand.”

Dale Smith, TfL's head of customer operations on the Northern line said:  "We're sorry that a customer was injured at the ticket barriers at High Barnet and we're grateful for the quick response of station colleagues who provided first aid.

"A full investigation of the incident has now taken place and has found the gate was working correctly."

TfL said that data about reported injuries at ticket barriers on their network would need to be requested through the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).