Three dead, six injured in horrific Scottish HST derailment
THREEpeopledied following the derailmentof a ScotRailHST travelling at 72mph south of Stonehavenon August 12.
Twoof the deadwere ScotRaiel mployees,driver Brett McCullough (45) and conductor Donald Dinnie (58).
PassengeCr hristopher Stuch bury (62) also died.
A further six passengersand crew were alsoinjured,the last one leaving hospitala week after the crash.
Thederailmentof the HSTi,n which the leading power car and a trailer vehiclefell down an embankmentand caught fire, wascausedby a landslip.
On August 19,a week on from the incident,a one-minute silencewas held acrossthe railwaynetwork in memoryof thosewho losttheir lives.
Family members joined rail staff at Aberdeento lay wreathsand floral tributes and to observethe silence.Flowers werealsoleft at Carmont crossing.
Torrentialrain
The incident occurredin difficult terrain,four milessouth of Stonehavenand slightly more than a mile north of Carmont levelcrossing- seemap.
Thecrashsite was in a deep wooded area close to Car ron Water,where it wasreported the river had burst its banks following a night of torrential rain.The RAIBsays52mm of rainfell on Carmontovernight, almost75%of the total averagemonthly rainfallfor Aberdeenshire.
The HSTinvolvedwas one of S cot Rail' s refurbished H ST sets working train 1T08,the 06.38 Aberdeen-GlasgowQueen Street,formed of powercar No .43140 leading with 43030 on the rear. Trailer vehicles were Nos.40622,42007,42564, 42125.
Thetrain hadarrivedat Stonehavenright time at 06.53, the first calling point on its 2½hourjourney, beforesetting off south towards Montrose.
The HSTwas south of Carmont signalbox when the signaller broadcastan emergencystop messageto the driver at 06.59.
Thiswasasa resultof a report by the driver of train 2B13,the 06.39Montrose-Invernessw, ho had spotted a landslipon the Up line between Car mont level crossing'box and Laurencekirk.
As the 06.19 Aberdeen Mont rose had passedCarmont 'box southboundat 06.44,the indications are the slip, which blockedthe path of 1T08, occurredwithin a small time-frame.
Whenit becameapparent train 1T08could not continue its journey south,the decisionwas takento returnto Aberdeen.
The HSTworked wrong line as far asCarmont,where it had to wait for two hoursfor a Network Rail mobile operations manager (MOM)to arriveand clampthe pointsfor the trailing crossover for the manoeuvrebackto the Down line.
This movementwas not authoriseduntil 09.36and carriedout at 5mph,with the HSTsetting off right line towards Stone havenw, here the maximum line speedis 75mph.
Havingset off from Carmont in bright sunshine,the train accelerated quickly and had reached72.8mphin a distance of 1.4mileswhenthe leading power car hit a fresh landslipat 09.38and derailed.
TheRAIBsayasthe track curvedto the right, the train continued in a roughly straight line for around 77 yards(70 metres)until it strucka section of a bridge parapet,which was destroyed.
The leading power car continued most of the way over the bridge and then fell from the railwaydown a wooded embankment,asdid the third passenger carriage.
The first passenger carriage cameto reston its roof,having rotatedto beat right anglesto the track. The second passenger carriage also over turned onto its roof and cameto reston the first carriage. The fourth passenger carriage remained upright and attachedto the rear power car,but was resting on the first carriage.All wheelsets of the rear power car derailed, but it remainedupright.
Wherethe derailment occurreda drain runsfrom a field through two access chambersto flow into Carron Water.The RAIBsaysafter the drain was installed, the trench wasfilled with gravel.
Waterflowing from land abovethe railway has washed someof this gravel onto the railway, together with some largerpiecesof rockeroded from the sidesof the trench.
Smokeplume
Firstreportsof the accident were receivedat 09.43when a memberof the public called PoliceScotlandhavingseen a plume of smokefrom the cutting. At aroundthe same time, the signallerand MOMare alsounderstoodto haveseen the plume of smoke.
As reportsof the crashfiltered through to newsoutlets,it led to misguidedspeculationon socialmedia,not helped by a lackof clarity at the time of the sequenceof eventsbetween the departuretime from Stonehavenand the first reports of the derailment.
In the immediateaftermath of the accident,off-duty conductor NicolaWhyte,31,from Huntley, who wasalsoon the train, and despite being injured, extracted herselffrom the wreckageand managedto walk morethan a mile from the crashsite to Carmontsignalboxto raisethe alarm.Therehavebeencalls for herto be nominatedfor an award.
It isslightly morethan 13 yearssincethe lastaccidentat Grayriggon February23,2007, where a passengerlost their life asthe resultof a derailedtrain, when 'Pendolino'No.390033 wasderailedon a faulty set of points,resultingin several carriagestoppling down an embankment.
Speakingafter the crash, ScotRaiml anagingdirector
Alex Hynessaid:"Ourthoughts arewith thosewho havebeen affectedby this tragic event, particularlythe familiesof those who havelosttheir lives.
"The railwayin Scotlandis a family, and it's one that is hurting today:•
Network Railchief executive Andrew Hainesflew backfrom a holiday in Italy to visit the crashsite.
Alsovisiting the site was TransportSecretaryGrant Shapps,who joined Mr Haines for a helicoptersurveyofthe site.Mr Shappshasasked Network Railto review its resilienceand managementof extremeweather conditions, and producean interim report by September1.
HRHPrinceCharlest,he
Dukeof Rothesaya, lsovisited and spoketo respondersw, ho included Coastguardstaff.
A Coastguardsearchand rescuehelicopter,along with localair ambulancesa, ttended to ferrythe injuredto hospital.
Recoveringthe wreckage will be a complexand difficult processbecauseof the remotenessof the location,with specialaccessroadshaving to be built. TheArmy is being brought in to assistand will use a Challengerarmouredrepair and recoveryvehicle.
Mark of respect
Oncethe site hasbeen clearedand the damaged vehiclesrecovered,repairsto the infrastructure,including thoseto the damagedbridge parapetand work to cutting sidesto preventfurther land slides,is expectedto keepthe line closeduntil September3. Until then, passengersare being busedaroundthe affected area.Any freight is running via Inverness.
Asmarkof respect,ScotRail, manyother companiesand Twittersusers- all part of the 'railwayfamily' - changedtheir socialmedialogosto black.
Special apel badges, featuring the BRdouble arrow emblemin blackwith the 1T08 reporting number and a broken heart, are being sold on eBayfor £15,with £12being donateda fund set up by rail unions RMT and Aslefat Aberdeendepot for the familiesof the deadand injured.Asof August24,more than 800badgeshadbeensold. Thelink is:www.ebay.co.uk/ itm/233682881785
A Go FundMe pagefor donationswas halted at nearly £13,500asit wasduplicating fundraisingefforts by the rail unions.Thefund organiserhas transferredthe moneyto the unions,and readerswishing to
make donations can find details at: www.aslef.org.uk/article.php?group_id=7224
Someweeksprior to the crash,the Officeof Railand Roadnoted in its annual report an increasein landslipsand pointed out the vulnerability of the network.
The OR R said flooding eventshad increasedsix fold in 2019/20comparedto the previous 12 months, withHM ChiefInspectorof RailwaysIan Prosserhaving previouslyraised concernswith NetworkRailover the risein flooding, earthwork failuresand trains striking trees on the line.
The accident investigation will be underthe direction of prosecutorsfrom the Crown Officeand ProcuratorFiscal Service,but will runjointly involvingthe BritishTransport Police,PoliceScotland, the Officeof Railand Roadand the RAIB.
Numberoffactors
RAIBissueda preliminary report two daysafter the accidentand hasindicatedit will look at a number of factors including:
■ the sequenceof eventsand
the actionsof those involved
■ the operating procedures applied
■ the managementof earthworksand drainage in this area,including recent inspection sand risk assessments
■the general management of earthworksand drainage and associated procedures designedto managethe risk
of extreme weather events
■ the behaviourof the train during, and following the derailment
■ the consequencesof the derailmentand a reviewof the damagecausedto the rolling stock
■ underlying management factors actions taken in responseto previoussafety recommendations.