Off-duty conductor praised after rail crash
Urgent review of trackside slopes ordered after driver, passenger and staff member died in derailment
An off-duty conductor has been praised for his “determined and courageous” action after he climbed from the wreckage of the derailed Aberdeenshire train and walked a mile to raise the alarm. The accident near Stonehaven on Wednesday killed Brett Mccullough, the train’s driver; Donald Dinnie, the conductor; and Christopher Stuchbury, a passenger. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, visited the site of the UK’S deadliest rail crash in 16 years yesterday.
‘We have lost a wonderful husband, father, and son in the most awful of circumstances’
A “DETERMINED and courageous” off-duty conductor climbed out of a train wreckage after its derailment in Aberdeenshire left three people dead and walked to a signal box to raise the alarm, it has emerged.
Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, visited the site of the UK’S deadliest rail crash in 16 years yesterday. He has ordered an urgent review of highrisk trackside slopes across Britain.
The accident killed Brett Mccullough, the train’s driver, Donald Dinnie, the conductor, and Christopher Stuchbury, a passenger.
Mr Shapps was taken in a helicopter to survey the scene, which he described as “horrendous”.
There were claims that the conductor who raised the alarm by walking to a signal box, “walked a mile” to get help. It is believed that the crash happened in a mobile phone black spot.
A member of the public is also believed to have contacted emergency services after seeing smoke billowing from the scene near Stonehaven on Wednesday morning.
“One of the things I’ve asked Network Rail to do immediately in the next few hours and days is to do a very quick resilience check to make sure that there’s no other situation like this,” Mr Shapps told The Daily Telegraph. “I’ve then ordered an [interim] report from them [to be] on my desk for Sept 1, where I want them to check the resilience of the whole of the GB network with this specifically in mind.”
The 6.38am service between Aberdeen and Glasgow Queen St is believed to have hit a landslide at speed as it returned in the direction of Aberdeen, having found the southbound line blocked following a night of storms and torrential downpours.
It remains unclear exactly when the collision occurred, with police not becoming aware of the incident until three hours after the train set off.
The train crashed only around 20 miles from Aberdeen, the city it started from, with one carriage careering down a steep embankment.
Mr Shapps said there were “obvious questions” about what role the weather played in the tragedy, why the train was heading back north when the accident happened, and the speed it was travelling at. He said these would be “left to the professionals” with investigations already well under way.
However, he raised the possibility that climate change, increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, could have been a factor. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said on Wednesday that a month’s worth of rain had fallen in the area in a very short space of time.
“We’re going to have to take a lot of Victorian infrastructure which wasn’t built for this extreme weather necessarily and we’re going to have to upgrade it to be able to withstand the weather,” Mr Shapps said.
“But as I say, you might think you know what went on there but the experts will tell you what really happened and we need to understand that before we jump to any conclusions.”
Network Rail said it would assess dozens of sites with “similar characteristics” to the stretch of line.
An investigation will reveal whether work to defend against adverse weather needs to be “stepped up”, Michael Matheson, the Scottish Transport Secretary, who visited the site, said.
Mr Matheson added that adverse weather was increasingly having an impact on routes and the Rail Accident Investigation Branch would reveal whether mitigation works needed to be increased. Mr Matheson also paid tribute to the conductor who escaped from the wreckage and walked to get help. He said this had allowed the line to be closed immediately afterwards.
He said: “It demonstrates the courage and determination they had to try to deal with the incident as effectively as possible and I’ve already highlighted how I’ve been quite literally humbled by the way in which our emergency response teams have dealt with this issue, but also how our Network Rail engineers and railway engineers have helped to manage this incident over the course of the last 24 hours.”
Tributes were paid to Mr Mccullough, 45, who was married with three children. He worked as a gas fitter and his interest in trains began in 2011 when he serviced the boiler of an Aberdeen train driver and struck up a conversation about locomotives.
A family statement said: “Words cannot describe the utterly devastating effect of Brett’s death on his family and friends. We have lost a wonderful husband, father, and son in the most awful of circumstances. Brett was the most decent and loving human being we have ever known and his passing leaves a huge void in all our lives.” The family of Mr Stuchbury, a 62-year-old passenger, said they were “devastated” by the death of the grandfather from Aberdeen. A family statement said: “Chris was a much adored husband, son, dad, stepdad, granddad, brother and uncle and was a treasured and loved friend to many, including the Targe Towing Team where he was an integral and valued member of staff. We are devastated by his death and we request privacy at this difficult time as we come to terms with our loss.”
♦ In Kent, 19 people were evacuated yesterday after the train they were travelling on struck a landslide.
The train became stuck between West Malling and Borough Green, with rescue attempts hindered by localised flooding, Network Rail Kent and Sussex said.