Video evidence

According to the Independent online on 28 February 2007


Network Rail confirmed that video footage taken by special engineering equipment found that a critical piece of equipment, which stabilises the points, was missing from the crossover two days before the accident. The film showed that the front stretcher bar, which keeps the rails apart, was missing from the points last Wednesday.

A spokesman for the infrastructure company however said that, as a matter of routine, the video footage was not inspected until after the crash.

At least 200 trains carrying tens of thousands of passengers passed over the faulty points before the accident in which a Virgin Pendolino train left the track, killing an elderly woman and seriously injuring five other people.

Similar news also reported in the Daily Record on 28 February 2007, but with a slightly different spin.

RAIL chiefs had video evidence that could have prevented the Cumbria death crash - but failed to look at it.

Footage recorded two days before Friday's accident could have revealed the fatal flaws in the set of points where the Virgin express train derailed.

But Network Rail admitted last night that nobody viewed the footage until after the accident at Grayrigg in which one person died and 22 were hurt.

It has emerged the film, taken by a hi-tech safety inspection train, showed one of four crucial "stretcher bars" was missing.

It also picked up the fact that bolts were missing from two of the remaining bars, which play a critical part in keeping the rails a precise distance apart.

Had the faults been spotted, a 20mph speed restriction would have been put in place right away.

A company spokesman said the £5million train, which checks the state of the track, had initially flagged up no problems.

But he added: "The train also has a video recorder which films the track. It did pick up the fact that one of the stretcher bars and some bolts were missing.

"But the video footage is not used on a day-to-day basis. It has to be run in super-slow motion to pick up any faults."

Network Rail looked at the film after the disaster then passed it to accident investigators. RMT leader Bob Crow branded the failure to look at the footage earlier "pure negligence".

Crow said it showed the "madness" of relying on technology.

Calling for an inquiry, he said: "Inspectors who walk the track are the eyes and ears of the railway."