No technical faults in Ufton Nervet derailment, says HSE

Neither railway infrastructure nor staff error were in any way to blame for the train derailment at Ufton Nervet which left seven people dead, according to an interim report by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The HSE probe, which focused on the railway aspects of the derailment at Ufton Automatic Half Barrier level crossing, found that car driver Bryan Drysdale deliberately stopped his car on the crossing before the barrier sequence started. He then "made no attempt to leave the vehicle once the crossing traffic signals began to flash and the barriers descended".

There were at least 180 passengers and four crew on board when the derailment occurred at 6.11pm on Saturday evening. Seven people, including Mr Drysdale, died as a result of the crash and 37 passengers were taken to hospital.

The executive's inspectors found that the crossing's signal sequence worked correctly and gave the full 27 seconds warning. An off-duty policeman who happened to be at the scene when the sequence began reported that the car driver made no attempt to leave his vehicle once it became clear a train was oncoming.

The HSE report found that the power car of the First Great Western train hit the vehicle and slewed off the track. Forward momentum then jack-knifed the following carriages and led to a "catastrophic derailment" of all the high-speed train's 10 carriages.

Steve Walker, HSE Assistant Chief Inspector of Railways, who led the investigation, said: "At this stage, the HSE investigators have not found any evidence to suggest that there were any errors by railway staff or faults with the level crossing, the signalling system or the train involved in the derailment."

It had been reported that authorities considered a suicide attempt by Mr Drysdale to have been the likeliest cause for the tragedy. However, a relative of Mr Drysdale has expressed shock that he would attempt to take his own life, particularly if he risked killing others.

(gmcg/sp)