Toll of tragedies on Scotland’s network

SCOTLAND’S railways have a good safety record but there have been tragedies.

The last crash to result in the death of a Scot was on February 23, 200 .

A Virgin train travelling at 95mph hit broken points on the West Coast Main Line and careered down an embankment.

An 84-year-old Glasgow woman, Margaret Masson, was killed and more than 80 other people were injured in the crash at Grayrigg, in Cumbria.

On July 12, 1995, the early morning train from Glasgow to Largs smashed into the buffers and continued through the station, ploughing into two shops on Main Street.

Five people, including the driver and the guard, were injured. On June 25, 1994, the 22.45 from Wemyss Bay to Glasgow derailed and smashed into a bridge after hitting concrete blocks put on the track by vandals. Driver Arthur McKee, 35, and 21year-old passenger Alan Nicol were killed.

Gary Dougan and Craig Houston, both 1 and from Greenock, were each sentenced to 15 years for culpable homicide.

On July 21, 1991, two commuter trains crashed at a junction west of Newton railway station in Cambuslang, near Glasgow, killing both drivers and two passengers and injuring 22 people. Investigators said the accident was probably caused by one of the trains passing through a red signal.

On March 6, 1989, two commuter trains crashed on the North Clyde Line in the East

End of Glasgow. Driver Hugh Kennan, 62, and passenger Robert McCaffrey, 58, died and 53 people were injured.

On September 11, 1986, in Bridgeton, Glasgow, two empty passenger trains collided in a tunnel, killing two crew.

The last time a train driver was killed in a UK rail crash was in Berkshire in November 2004. Seven people including driver Stanley Martin, 54, died when his train struck a car that had been deliberately driven onto a level crossing.