Tebay rail accident

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This article is about the engineering accident. For the passenger train accident, see Grayrigg rail crash.

The Tebay rail accident occurred on 15 February 2004 near Tebay, Cumbria, England.

Four railway engineers working on the West Coast Main Line were knocked down and killed by a trolley carrying lengths of rail. It had not been properly secured and had run from a maintenance yard several miles away.

In the aftermath of the incident, the boss of the rail maintenance company and a crane operator were tried at Newcastle Crown Court on charges of manslaughter caused by gross negligence. The company boss was also prosecuted over breaches of health and safety law. Both men were found guilty by majority verdicts and imprisoned for nine years and two years respectively. The families of the victims said it was 'a victory' to have the two men jailed.

On 1 March 2007 an appeal launched by the two jailed men seeking to overturn the convictions failed, although the Court of Appeal did reduce the former boss's sentence from nine years to seven.

There is a small plaque at the site of the Tebay incident, with the names of the deceased, which was erected in September 2006.