In what circumstances will a workman be dismissed if he jumps on to a buffer of a moving locomotive?

In Herbert v. Fox [1915] 2 K.B. 81, 84 L.J.K.B. 670, a workman was employed as a shunter, and it was part of his duty to walk in front of any train with which he was working while it moved about the employer’s works. On January 17, 1914, he worked with an engine until 12.30 p.m. when it was time to stop work. The engine had to return to its shed, three-quarters of a mile away and started to go there pushing four waggons in front of it. According to the workman’s own story he jumped upon a front buffer of the leading waggon and then slipped, fell across the rail, and was run over. There was a notice in the locomotive shed that the look-out man must be in front of the waggons on pain of instant dismissal, and the workman admitted that he had no business to get on to a buffer and that anyone seen riding on a buffer by the manager would be dismissed. It was held that the accident did not arise “out of” the employment, but was due to an added risk to which the workman’s conduct had exposed him and which was put outside the sphere of his employment by genuine prohibition.