Is leaking train diesel to blame for car crashes?

POLICE are investigating the theory that a number of car crashes at an accident blackspot may have been caused by leaking diesel from passing trains.

Detectives are investigating whether the smashes, which killed three people on the same straight stretch of the A937 trunk road, could have been as a result of fuel extract on the Tarmac from the exhausts of the locomotives.

The blackspot is at the centre of a 550yard stretch of the road that runs parallel to, and 20ft below, a major railway line before bending to the right and going under a rail bridge near the village of Marykirk, Angus. There is a steep embankment on one side.

The investigation follows the death of Scott Mowatt, 31, and Paisley Bates, 26, from Arbroath, who were both killed when their Vauxhall Astra ploughed through a parapet on the road on August 12.

Another man was taken to hospital following the crash, which saw the car land several feet down the embankment.

Student nurse Leanne McDonald, 21, of Montrose, also died after her Citroen C3 crashed into a wall at the same spot in July last year. There was no other vehicle involved.

After the latest incident, a spokesman for Angus Council said: ‘Police Scotland is investigating the tragic collision and we have passed on the information with regards to diesel to the team involved.’

Retired engineering consultant Ian Forrest, of Arbroath, said the road has become notorious among locals.

The 61-year-old said: ‘There have been so many accidents on that stretch of road that quite a few people say it is diesel particulates that are making the road like ice.’