Fellow train driver pays tribute to his brother killed in rail crash 30 years ago
The brother of a train driver killed in Scotland’s worst train crash for three decades and who had followed him into the railways laid a wreath yesterday to mark the 30th anniversary of the disaster.
Stuart Scott’s floral tribute was among four laid in memory of David Scott, 27, fellow driver Reginald Mcewan, 61, and passengers Kenneth Meechan, 20, and Tracy Donnachie, 18, who died in 1991 when two trains collided west of Newton station, near Cambuslang, on the south-eastern fringe of Glasgow.
A new plaque unveiled will be attached to the station building.
The incident, in which 22 others were injured, happened weeks after British Rail had reduced a double track crossover between lines to single track.
It led to safety improvements at the junction to avert a repeat of the collision.
Mr Scott, 50, now also a train driver, told an anniversary gathering beside the station: “Being a fellow railwayman has put me in this unique position where I am able to tell you how proud I am of my brother.
"Those of you who knew David will know he truly was one of the good guys.”
The DB Cargo driver, who is six years his brother’s junior, later told The Scotsman that David had encouraged him to join the railways.
He started as a ticket examiner with British Rail three years before his brother was killed, by which time he had become a trainee driver. Mr Scott said: “David told me the money was good, along with the perks and pension, job security and comradeship.
"He was a very charismatic individual and a talented artist. He used to leave caricatures of his colleagues in train cabs for them to see.
"Some of them were offended but after he died it emerged they had kept them.
"They are now displayed in a glass case at the Yoker depot, including one that had been ripped up.”
Mr Scott said rail safety was a big issue since both he and his brother had worked on trains on the Bellgrove line, in the east end of Glasgow, where two people were killed when two trains collided two years before the Newton crash.
He said: “I can remember actively discussing my concerns but he assured me such incidents were a rarity.” Mr Scott said his brother’s widow Karen and son Stewart, who was eight months old when his father was killed, had decided not to attend the memorial event because they were “still hurting”.
It is understood she believes the crash could have been avoided if the junction had not been reduced to single track.
A report by the Health and Safety Executive concluded that “on the balance of probabilities”, a signal was at red when Mr Mcewan drove past it as his Glasgow-bound train left the station at 9.55pm and collided with Mr Scott’s Balloch to Motherwell service. The other wreaths were laid by Kevin Lindsay, Scottish secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, Glasgow train driver Jim Paton in memory of Reginald Mcewan and Scotrail head of drivers Mark Ilderton.