Glenbrook train disaster

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The Glenbrook train disaster was a railway accident in New South Wales, Australia that occurred on 3 December 1999. It happened on a curve of track east of Glenbrook station on the CityRail network between Glenbrook and Lapstone.

Contents

[edit] Overview

In the accident, an interurban passenger train restarted after stopping at a red signal and collided shortly after with the rear of the Indian Pacific long distance passenger train waiting at a failed signal in the following block. A number of factors were involved, from equipment breakdown to poor phrasing of the rules. The most important factor was that the interurban picked up too much speed after restarting from the signal at stop, and was not able to see the rear of the long distance train around a sharply curved and deep cutting in order to stop in time to avoid the collision.

[edit] Visibility

The track was curved to the left, the train was using the lefthand track, and the driver was sitting on the left side of the front car of the train. The track was in a narrow rock cutting. These four factors contributed to less than average visibility.

If the curve had been a right hand curve, on a wide embankment, then visibility would have been better than average.

[edit] Accident

Seven people were killed in the accident. A Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice McInerny investigated the accident.

All seven people who died were in the front compartment of the first carriage of the interurban train. After the driver saw the stationary Indian Pacific consist, he ran through the front compartment (the dead-man's brake was automatically activated) and ran to the downstairs part of the carriage yelling "Get down!". Though the driver was badly injured he survived. As the driver ran through, a man from the front compartment ran upstairs to warn people there, and because of this he survived.[citation needed]

[edit] The train

The train was a 4-car standard interurban V set, labelled V21. The leading motor carriage, DIM8067, received critical damage to its front and lower compartments. Rather than scrapping the car, due to a shortage of motor carriages in the fleet, the car was repaired and reconstructed.

To avoid any reference and insensitivities to the victims of the accident, DIM8067 was re-numbered DIM8020.

The black box event records were either yet to be installed or were not activated.

[edit] The guard

When passing a signal at stop, the driver and guard exchange bell signals so that the guard knows what is going on. When passing such a signal, especially one positioned at a platform, the driver is so accustomed to accelerating to normal speed, that it may be difficult for the driver to remember to keep the train's speed to a slow speed. This is very dangerous. It is up to the guard to observe the train's speed and to apply the brakes if necessary. This does not appear to have been done, and neither does it appear to have been mentioned in the official report.

[edit] ATP

An Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system can restrict speeds when a train passes a signal at stop in accordance with the rules, and would reduce or prevent accidents such as this.

[edit] Similar accidents

Other CityRail accidents involving "Stop and Proceed" include:

[edit] Overspeed accident

[edit] Sharp curves

[edit] Low speed turnouts

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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