| Round Oak rail accident | |
|---|---|
| Details | |
| Date | 23 August 1858 |
| Location | Round Oak, near Dudley |
| Country | England |
| Rail line | Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line |
| Cause | Train divided |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Passengers | 450 |
| Deaths | 14 |
| Injuries | 50 |
| List of UK rail accidents by year | |
The Round Oak rail accident was, in the words of the United Kingdom Board of Trade inspector, "decidedly the worst railway accident that has ever occurred in this country". On 23 August 1858 the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway ran a special day excursion from Wolverhampton to Worcester and back; advertised as being for school children only, in the event it became a veritable free-for-all and a vast train of 42 four-wheelers left Wolverhampton that morning. Guard Cooke in the rear brake van had six passengers drinking and smoking with him, and he invited them to try their hand at his screw brake, breaking train couplings and side chains three times on the outward journey, requiring temporary repairs. But the central coupling was not repaired whilst standing at Worcester waiting for the return journey.
For the return journey it was decided to divide the train in order to negotiate the 1 in 75 gradient between Brettell Lane and Round Oak. A second locomotive was added to the first train of 28 coaches, with Guard Cooke in the brake van. This first train reached Round Oak at 20:10 but just as it drew to a halt a snap was heard as Cooke's van and 17 coaches packed with 450 passengers began to roll back down the incline. According to Cooke he applied his brakes, locking the wheels of his brake van but failed to stop the train. By now the second part of the train had left Bretell Lane and was making heavy progress up the steep gradient; Cooke saw it and leaped onto the lineside, yelling to the passengers "Jump! Jump! or we'll all be killed.". The second train had virtually drawn to a standstill when the runaway struck; Cooke's brakevan and the two coaches next to it were, in the words of the inspector "broken all to pieces", killing 14 passengers and badly injuring 50 more.
The investigator found that Cooke's evidence that he attempted to stop the runaway was entirely false; he recreated the accident; reassembling the runanaway vehicles, weighting them to simulate the loading, replacing the destroyed coaches and brakevan and rolled the train back down the bank. He found that screwing down the brakes stopped the train; moreover the nut on the brakescrew recovered from the remains of Cooke's van was in the off position, and bent by the collision in such a way that the nut could not have been moved subsequently. He determined that Cooke had left the train when it came to a halt at Round Oak and was not in the van on its runaway descent. As well as blaming Cooke (who was convicted of manslaughter[1]), and the company for employing such an unreliable employee, he also severely criticized them to allow the excursion, originally advertised for school children to become a general free-for-all.