Looking back at Courier’s wreck coverage

IT WAS one of the biggest news stories of the year and Courier readers could find unparalleled coverage of the Invergowrie rail disaster in their paper — but not on the front page.

Back then, The Courier still printed adverts on its front page — something that would not change for several years — and the paper had no colour photographs.

However, nobody could say coverage of the disaster was lacking.

Page 10 was given over to a series of interviews with survivors of the accident and prof iles of injured passengers. It included a first-person piece written by a “Courier l ady reporter”, who had been travelling on the train.

The following page was given over to a series of photographs of the accident but on the next, regular items featured, such as readers’ letters, the leader Craigie columns.

Pages 13 — then, the paper’s main news page — was again given over to the accident.

The main report of the accident describes how “carriages were thrown in the air like matchboxes”, while others “were dragged buckled and mangled, to the edge of the sea wall” before detailing the extensive rescue operation.

Data protection laws would prevent it from happening today but the paper also carried a list of casualties being treated in hospital, with a full description of their injuries, condition and home address.

Two years later, the crash was still making t he news. The Department of Transport published a report which said the accident was the result of a driver’s error in misreading an imperfect signal.

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