2001 rail crash in North Yorkshire, England
The Selby rail crash (also known as the Great Heck Rail Crash) was a railway accident that occurred on 28 February 2001 near Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire when a passenger train collided with a car which had crashed down a motorway embankment onto the railway line. The passenger train then collided with an oncoming freight train. Ten people died, including the drivers of the two trains, and 82 were injured. It remains the worst rail disaster of the 21st century in the United Kingdom.
The driver of the car, Gary Hart, was convicted of ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving and sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found that he had fallen asleep while driving. As a result of the crash, Hart's insurers paid out £30 million in claims.
Background.
The InterCity 225 passenger train was operating 1F23, the Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) 04:45 service from Newcastle to London King's Cross with 99 occupants onboard. It consisted of a leading Driving Van Trailer (DVT), nine Mark 4 coaches, and a trailing Class 91 locomotive. The InterCity 225 operates in a push-pull configuration; in normal operations, the DVT is the lead vehicle for southbound services such as this one, remotely controlling the pushing Class 91 locomotive at the rear.
The freight train was operating 6G34, the Freightliner 05:00 service from Immingham Docks to Eggborough power station. It consisted of a leading Class 66 locomotive, and sixteen fully laden coal wagons.
The car was a Land Rover Defender, which was towing a Renault Savanna. It was being driven by 36-year-old Gary Hart on a journey from his home in Strubby, Lincolnshire, which he left at 04:40, to his work in Wigan.
The accident occurred on a section of the East Coast Main Line. The line speed for this section is and passes under two road bridges, one carrying the M62 motorway over the rail line. In the southbound direction, there is a trailing set of points connecting a freight yard to the Up line.
Events.
The accident sequence began at approximately 06:13, when the car left the westbound carriageway of the motorway just before the bridge over the rail line. The vehicle travelled down an embankment and onto the southbound railway track. After a failed attempt to reverse off the track, Hart exited the vehicle and called the emergency services using his mobile telephone. During the call, the Land Rover was hit by the InterCity 225. The sound of the train's horn and the collision with the car was captured on Hart's 999 call.
After striking the Land Rover, the leading bogie of the Driving Van Trailer derailed, but the train stayed upright. The set of trailing points from the freight yard then deflected it into the path of the oncoming freight train.
The freight train collided with the InterCity 225 approximately from the passenger train's impact with the Land Rover, resulting in the near-total destruction of the DVT and moderate to severe damage to all nine of the InterCity 225's coaches, which mostly overturned and came to rest down an embankment to the east side of the track, in a field adjacent to the railway line just south of the second overbridge. The trailing locomotive of the passenger train was derailed but remained upright and suffered only minor damage. The freight locomotive lost its bogies after impact, with debris from the DVT jammed underneath, rupturing its fuel tank. It overturned onto its left side, coming to rest in the garden of a residence adjacent to the line to the north of the bridge. The first nine wagons following it were derailed and damaged to varying extents. Two wagons that left the line with the freight locomotive flattened a caravan and garage on the grounds of the house all three came to rest in, but stopped short of striking the house itself.
Both train drivers, two additional train crew on board the InterCity 225, and six passengers were killed, all as a result of the collision with the freight train. Survivors of the crash included Andrew Hill, a train driver who was travelling in the cab of the freight train, supervising the experienced driver who was learning a new route.
Investigation.
Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate was notified of the crash at 06:55, and four inspectors arrived at the scene at 09:24. Another four inspectors arrived shortly thereafter. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) released an interim report on 6 March 2001. It was conducted with the assistance of several entities, including GNER and Freightliner, the operators of the trains; Railtrack, the owner of the railway infrastructure; both South and North Yorkshire Police, the British Transport Police, and the Highways Agency. Investigators recovered the data recorder of the freight locomotive, but the InterCity 225 had not yet been fitted with one under GNER's rolling programme of installation.
The HSE released their final report into the accident on 4 December 2002. It stated that no defects were found with any of the railway infrastructure that could have contributed to the outcome of the crash, and that the motorway complied with the standards at the time. A separate investigation into road standards was carried out by a working group set up by the Health and Safety Commission, which brought its own recommendations. These included carrying out risk assessments at specific locations and collecting data from incidents involving vehicles entering the railway. The working group stated that they expected a similar event to the Selby rail crash to occur every 300 to 400 years.
At the time of the impact with the car, the InterCity 225 was estimated to have been travelling at a speed of to . After the initial collision, the train then slowed to an estimated speed of prior to the impact with the freight train, which was estimated to have been travelling at . With an estimated closing speed of , the collision between the trains is the highest-speed railway incident that has occurred in the UK.
The report considered the crashworthiness of the trains. The InterCity 225 had 99 occupants at the time, out of a total seating capacity of 544. The DVT suffered major damage, which included the cab being separated from the underframe. This was due to it being more lightweight, and having a lower ride height than the freight locomotive it collided with. 45 of the 52 seriously injured passengers, and all eight fatalities, were travelling in the first five coaches. These coaches were noted for having the most damage, with their survival space reduced due to several impacts. Overall, the report noted that the coaches performed well in the crash, considering the high speeds involved.
The front and right side of the freight locomotive suffered heavy damage as a result of the impact with the DVT. Though the locomotive's body had a robust construction, which meant it only suffered relatively minor structural damage compared to the other vehicles involved in the accident, its design meant that it did not have any energy absorbing features. The report added "Its design does not appear to complement the crashworthy considerations that guide the construction of passenger vehicles that use the same rail network." Some freight wagons impacted the passenger train's coaches, causing extensive damage. This was partially due to the angular design of the wagons, which was also noted in the Southall rail crash investigation.
The report recommended that further research be conducted on how derailments occur and how the vehicles behave during them. This research should consider several factors, such as vehicle construction and safety features such as obstacle deflectors and bogie retention. It raised concerns relating to the design of freight trains as a whole, and mentioned that future designs should include features such as energy absorption functionality and bogie retention. It also stated that freight vehicles should avoid aggressive corners at possible interfaces with passenger trains in the event of a crash. Tripwires similar to those already used close to airport runways were mentioned as potentially warranting further research. These could detect the incursion of a road vehicle onto railway property, and interface with different train control systems. Although this may not help when a train is already close to the incident, it could provide an early warning to the incursion in other cases.
Aftermath.
Hart was tried at Leeds Crown Court on ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving. He pleaded not guilty. The prosecution alleged that Hart had fallen asleep while driving, after having spent five hours the previous night on the phone to a woman he had met through an advert on an internet dating agency. He had been on the phone call from 21:48 to 02:58, and sent text messages between 03:11 and 03:57. He did not get any sleep before leaving his house and starting his journey 90 minutes after the end of the phone call. As part of their investigation, the police tried to replicate the drive, which was in 70 minutes. With a police escort, and after going like a "bat out of hell", they completed the journey with two minutes to spare.
Hart denied the allegations, saying that he did not fall asleep, and he would have pulled over if he were tired. He said that he could go 36 hours without sleep, and that he heard a loud bang before the car left the road, and thought it could have been a puncture. When asked why he initially told the police on the day of the crash that he had slept for two-and-a-half to three hours, Hart said that he was in shock. He said that he hadn't got any sleep as he was "buzzing with excitement" ahead of planning to meet the woman later that day.
Hart was found guilty on 13 December 2001. On 11 January 2002, he was sentenced to five years in prison and given a five-year driving ban after the jury found that he had fallen asleep while driving. He was released from prison in July 2004 after serving half of his sentence, which is normal practice in the United Kingdom for this kind of sentence.
An inquest into the deaths of the ten victims opened on 8 September 2003 in Harrogate. On 12 September 2003, the jury decided that all ten people who died in the accident were unlawfully killed.
In total, Hart's insurers, Fortis, who provided him with an unlimited liability third-party fire and theft policy, paid out £30 million as a result of the crash. In October 2003, Fortis was a party in a legal case in the High Court, to try to recover some of the funds it had paid out. They alleged that the safety barrier was too short, and in a statement said that if it had been longer, the crash would never have happened. On 30 October 2003, the judge ruled that negligence on behalf of the Highways Agency had not been established, and that Hart was the precipitating cause of the accident. Fortis held a reinsurance policy, so only had to pay the first £1.5 million themselves, with the remainder being paid by Munich Re, up to the threshold of their reinsurance policy held with another provider.
Memorials.
A Class 66 locomotive, 66526 was named "Driver Steve Dunn (George)" by Freightliner in memory of the freight train driver killed in the collision. It carries a plaque commemorating the disaster: "In remembrance of a dedicated engineman Driver Steve (George) Dunn was tragically killed in the accident at Great Heck on 28thFebruary 2001". Dunn's son James, who was nine at the time of the crash, later became a train driver. Barry Needham, another Freightliner employee killed in the crash, was also commemorated by the naming of locomotive 56115 after him. The nameplates and plaques were transferred to locomotive 60087 and later to 60091. These locomotives also carried an explanatory plaque.
GNER honoured the passenger train driver, John Weddle, by naming a new driver-training school in his home city of Newcastle after him. In a ceremony attended by members of his family, his 16-year-old daughter Stephanie unveiled a plaque dedicating the school to his memory.
Seventeen books of condolences were created and put out at GNER stations for the public to sign. These were damaged by a flood while in storage, but were later restored and put into a collection by the National Railway Museum. A stone memorial garden was created close to