Great Western Coffee Shop

1975 - At 8.37 am in the London rush hour, a Northern Line underground train crashed through the buffers at Moorgate station and hit a solid dead-end wall, killing 41 people and seriously injuring 50. The rescue operation took three days to complete.


2001- GNER train from York to London King's Cross crashed at Great Heck between Goole and Selby, North Yorkshire, on the East Coast main line. Gary Hart fell asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover and plunged 40ft down the railway embankment from the M62 into the path of an express train. The 4.45am Great North Eastern Intercity service from Newcastle to London King's Cross ploughed into the Land Rover before colliding with a coal train travelling north. 10 people, including both train drivers, died and more than 70 were injured. See ©BB plaque in the memorial garden that overlooks the track. See also ©BB picture. With an estimated closing speed of 142 mph the collision between the trains is the highest speed railway incident that has occurred in the UK. Hart was convicted of ten charges of causing death by dangerous driving, but served just 30 months of a five-year jail term.

Dad managed an office in a basement up the road on Finsbury Square; he came home telling us how they had heard the thud even at that distance.  Lots of tales from the office when he unwound in the evening - most forgotten but that one remembered.

I agree a terrible day and my thoughts for all those affected.

After the 2001 crash the driver's insurance company paid out over £20M.  This is the UK's largest car insurance payout.

BBC at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-56085631 - "Selby rail crash: Disaster remembered 20 years on"

Worth a read, particularly for the intelligent and dignified contribution from Steve Dunn’s widow.

A few hours ago (evening of 13th March), a MerseyRail train hit the buffers at Kirkby.  Just beyond the buffer stops ia a bridge the line used to continue through which is (or rather was until a few hours ago) occupied by an extended walkway built out at platform level onto the trackbed for passengers to walk through to connect to their onward Northern train.  From early reports, it would seem that although massive damage has been done and the driver was taken to hospital, there are no casualties.  Thank goodness it wasn't a solid wall as at Moorgate, though I have no idea how fast the train was going.  Wishing the driver and anyone else hurt a speedy recovery; awaiting official information in due course as to what went wrong.

From the Liverpool Echo (https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/train-driver-taken-hospital-after-20142373)


And a thread split coming in the morning.

I question the accuracy of a couple of elements here ... and thank the author for telling us what a buffer stop is.  But yet that very seriously reminds us of the need for clarity and explanation for newcomers.

Quote from Twitter:

"507006 last night is not the 1st time a train has smashed through the buffers at Kirkby Station - Remember 508101 in 1987 & 507029 in 1991 & 507032 in 1997."

OTC

Of course, previous incidents would have been pre-TPWS and before data recorders were installed.  I’ll be interested to see what the RAIB has to say about it.

There is of course nothing about February 28 that renders train travel less safe than on other dates, it is simply tragic chance.

How long before some group or other suggests "not travelling by train on February 28 due to the risks"

There has been a regretable increase in superstition in recent years. Did you know that fatal house fires are more likely in odd numbered houses than even numbered houses ? Should odd numbers be banned ?

Probably quite some time.

According to totally unreliable sources, there are on average somewhere around between 65 and 70 houses in the average street.  If a street has an odd number of houses, there is one more odd than even houses there, but if a street has an even number they match. A little bit of mental arithmetic suggests that 50.4% of houses have odd numbers and 49.6% have even numbers.  And on that basis, the number of fatal fires reported overall in odd number houses will be higher than the number of fatal fires reported overall in even number houses.


Not from the evidence presented.  It's the number of fires per million in the pool in which you are measuring and the two pools you are comparing are of different size.

You are correct, there are more odd numbered houses than even numbers, and therefore more fatal fires therein.

I doubt however that the nuttier end of the on line mother and baby groups could understand that.

If they are all Shakespeare buffs, they might think otherwise:


But that's the Windsor wives, not the online nuttier wives.

From Liverpool Echo (https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/train-driver-arrested-over-kirkby-20295187)


I am uneasy with the suspicion being in public prior to full reports and analysis - however, the above is just echoing the news feed.

Thread Split needed ...

Arrested or placed under caution?

Its posible the driver was placed under arrest, that should not infer that charges will follow

The difference is that he can't walk away if he was arrested, and can be put under bail conditions. Chances are that the practical difference in this case is marginal. Arrested or not, it is the start of an investigation which might not end in proceedings.

It did indeed end in proceedings. From ITV (https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2022-02-09/train-driver-was-using-phone-seconds-before-derailment)

The RAIB report into this accident (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-072022-buffer-stop-collision-at-kirkby-merseyside) was published today. The details that led to the driver's conviction are already known, of course, but the report adds a couple more.

Suspended sentence. A lucky chap indeed.

"The accident occurred because the driver of the train did not apply the brakes in time, as he was distracted from the driving task by his mobile phone and by his bag falling onto the cab floor".

A little bit remonisant of the Southall crash 19 September 1997 "The HST driver said he was aware of the isolated AWS but admitted to a lack of focus, referring to putting items in his bag before the incident twice in his tape-recorded conversation with signallers at the nearest trackside telephone"
The HST Driver was charged with Manslaughter, the charges were later dropped