Potters Bar rail crash

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Image: BBC

The Potters Bar rail crash occurred on 10 May 2002 at Potters Bar, in Hertfordshire just north of Greater London, when a northbound train derailed at high speed, killing seven and seriously injuring another eleven.

A West Anglia Great Northern train service left King's Cross station at 12:45 bound for King's Lynn in Norfolk. At 12:55 travelling at 97mph, it crossed over a set of points '2182A' just south of Potters Bar railway station. As the final coach travelled over the points they failed, causing the rear wheels of the carriage to travel onto the adjacent line and ultimately derail, flipping it into the air; the momentum carried the carriage into the station, one end of the carriage struck a bridge parapet, sending debris onto the road below; it then mounted and slid along the platform before coming to rest under the platform canopy at 45 degrees.

Six of the victims were travelling on board the train, while a seventh was killed by the falling debris.

1 Investigation
2 Aftermath
3 List of the deceased
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Investigation

The Health and Safety Executive report released in May 2003 found that the points were poorly maintained, and this was the principal cause of the accident. The bolts that held the stretch bars that keep the rails apart had become loose or missing, resulting in the points moving while the train passed over them. The points had been fully inspected on 1 May by a team working for the private railway maintenance firm Jarvis, and there had been a further visual inspection on 9 May the day before the crash, with no problems reported. However, that evening a rail worker was travelling on the line norhtbound and reported "lethal vibrations" on the track at Potters Bar whilst going over that same point on the track, point '2182A'. Jarvis employees did make an inspection of the points, but due to an insufficient Incident reporting system, they were sent to the wrong end of the platform to check the track and points - subseqently not finding the 'loose nuts' which would later lead to the accident.

Initially after the accident, Jarvis claimed that the points' poor condition was due to sabotage of some sort, and that its maintenance was not to blame. However, no solid evidence of any sabotage has ever come to light. Furthermore, the HSE report found that other sets of points in the Potters Bar area showed similar (but not as serious) maintenance deficiencies, and the poor state of maintenance "probably arose from a failure to understand fully the design and safety requirements".

Further investigations by the HS&E found that heavy and constant vibrations on the strech bars and their bolts, caused them to in turn vibrate and oscillate until they literally fell off the bolt. This has since been replaced by a two-part locking nut instead of the main nut, and half-size locking nut to hold it in place.

[edit] Aftermath

The tragedy sparked a debate about whether private maintenance firms were paying too little attention to training and safety. In 2003 Network Rail announced it was taking all track maintenance in-house, ending the use of private contractors except for large-scale renewal or development projects.

On 28 April 2004 Jarvis sent a letter to the victim's families admitting liability for the accident. The company said that it would formally accept "legally justified claims" after making a financial provision of £3m.

In the letter Kevin Hyde, chief executive, wrote: "In the aftermath of the crash, when Jarvis was under great pressure to explain itself, we were drawn into a debate about the possible causes of the crash. On behalf of the company and my colleagues, I would like to apologise for the hurt and anger our actions in responding caused."

The writer Nina Bawden was badly injured in the crash, and her husband, Austen Kark, was killed.