A train crash near Bedford, driver passed away many injured blamed on the signals failing....

[dutchguylivingintheuk]

So the news has extensively covered this accident and the many injured and the driver who sadly didn't make it out.
They now seem to blame it on failing signals, but how on earth on 2026?
How many accident do there need to happen before they start taking things seriously? if cars can have early automatic braking(or however it's called it can emergency brake before the driver even sees the issue/obstruction etc.) surely trains should be able to have a similar system installed?

 

[Beebo]

Whilst it’s awful that the crash happened, we really don’t have many big train crashes in the UK. I can’t recall many big ones in the last 20 years.
And the amount of train traffic coming in and out of the large mainline stations is huge, so people are doing something right.

 

[Ian H]

Whatever the failure was, it certainly wasn't failsafe. Which is surprising.

 

[briantrumpet]

Everything is black-boxed, so we should know in good time. Compare rail with roads (~4 fatalities per day every day of the year), and you realise how safe rail travel is.

This is pretty much a complete list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

[Beebo]

Looking at that list, in the last 20 years there have only been 2 incidents with more than one death.
One was a derailment and one was workers on the line.
So there have been no multiple deaths as a result of signal failure.

 

[briantrumpet]

Looking at that list, in the last 20 years there have only been 2 incidents with more than one death.
One was a derailment and one was workers on the line.
So there have been no multiple deaths as a result of signal failure.

It feels a bit morbid looking at that list, but yes, it's actually quite heartening. I'm rubbish at remembering which crash (caused by faulty maintenance) resulted in the coroner making about 40 recommendations which were *all* followed, and for several years afterwards there were no passenger deaths at all.

A lot of the deaths have been caused either by operator error (some resulting in convictions for gross negligence) or by vehicles on level crossings. Very few in more recent times have been caused by equipment failure. I was reading about a Network Rail unit that runs on tracks at high speed taking photos:

"🚅 Plain Line Pattern Recognition inspection unit at Gateshead. 📷 Cameras mounted underneath the trains capture an image every 0.8mm, taking 70,000 images a second at the top speed of 125mph, to identify potential defects."

 

[briantrumpet]

It feels a bit morbid looking at that list, but yes, it's actually quite heartening. I'm rubbish at remembering which crash (caused by faulty maintenance) resulted in the coroner making about 40 recommendations which were *all* followed, and for several years afterwards there were no passenger deaths at all.

A lot of the deaths have been caused either by operator error (some resulting in convictions for gross negligence) or by vehicles on level crossings. Very few in more recent times have been caused by equipment failure. I was reading about a Network Rail unit that runs on tracks at high speed taking photos:

"🚅 Plain Line Pattern Recognition inspection unit at Gateshead. 📷 Cameras mounted underneath the trains capture an image every 0.8mm, taking 70,000 images a second at the top speed of 125mph, to identify potential defects."

The crash was Potters Bar. Loose bolts. Private contractors cutting corners. Same happened at Grayrigg later.

https://www.inquestsandinquiries.com/projects/potters-bar-inquest

 

[Mr Celine]

Everything is black-boxed, so we should know in good time. Compare rail with roads (~4 fatalities per day every day of the year), and you realise how safe rail travel is.

This is pretty much a complete list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_in_the_United_Kingdom

I was in a train crash in 1967 with 7 fatalities. The total fatalities for that year was 71 from 5 different accidents, fairly typical for the time.