Tebay Tragedy

This accident had the same death toll as the Hatfield derailment. I just hope it doesn't produce the same overreaction.

A small rail trolley loaded with rails on one work site somehow ran away down a falling gradient. Four miles down the line it had picked up speed and ran down a group of track workers on another work site. Four were killed, and three more injured.

They were under arc lamps and the trolley would have come out of the dark.

Mark Lenderyou of the Health and Safety Executive said the runaway vehicle would have been running "virtually silently" - while the men were working amid the noise of lighting generators.

"It's very unlikely they would have known anything about it until the trolley hit them," he added.

First, my condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in this accident. The rail industry does need to take all sensible methods to prevent a repeat of this accident. It's wise to reexamine safety procedures when there are multiple work sites on a steeply-graded stretch of line.

But...

The aftermath of Hatfield saw the rail network crippled for months with severe speed restrictions, which probably cost more lives in additional road accidents than it saved. I hope we don't see a similar overreaction banning all overnight maintenance work regardless of possible risks; that would only result in more daytime closures forcing passengers onto more dangerous modes of travel.

Sadly I don't trust the HSE to see the bigger picture.