Network Rail placed “too much reliance” on the contractor that built a faulty drainage system that led to a fatal train derailment, an inquiry has heard.
Train driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the tragedy at Carmont near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, on 12 August 2020.
The six remaining passengers were injured when the ScotRail service from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street derailed after it hit a pile of gravel washed onto the railway track by heavy rain before striking a barrier on a bridge.
A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) began on Monday. Here, Sky News looks at what we have heard so far.
Victims Mr McCullough, Mr Dinnie and Mr Stuchbury suffered unsurvivable multiple blunt force injuries.
Mr Stuchbury died on his wedding anniversary, with his wife saying the accident “robbed” the couple of their future together.
Nick Bucknall, an inspector of rail accidents with the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), told the inquiry the number of casualties would have likely been “significantly higher” had the train been full. The passenger count was said to be low due to the COVID pandemic.
Drainage system not built to agreed design
A RAIB report published in March 2022 found errors in the construction of a drainage system installed by contractor Carillion meant it was unable to cope with heavy rain which fell in the area on the morning of the crash.
Mr Bucknall said gravel in the drainage trench was “vulnerable to washout” and “Network Rail did not have arrangements for additional operational mitigation”.
The inquiry heard Carillion failed to build the drainage system in accordance with the agreed design, and neither Network Rail nor the designer Arup were aware of this.
Mr Bucknall branded the transfer of safety-related information “ineffective”.
He added: “Had this managed transfer taken place in accordance with Network Rail’s processes, it is possible that the divergence between the design intent and the asset that had been delivered would have been noted and remedial action taken.”
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Contractor failed to provide ‘health and safety file’
William McKay, who had been Network Rail’s project manager for the drain build, which began in 2010, said as a “large, competent contractor and a key supplier”, Carillion had been allowed to “self-assure” its own work.
Mr McKay also said Carillion failed to provide the “health and safety file” – a legal requirement at the end of every project – which would have included “as built” drawings and photographs showing what had actually been constructed.
Sheriff Lesley Johnson asked if Network Rail placed “too much reliance” on Carillion and suggested the potential lack of oversight effectively allowed it to “mark its own homework”.
Mr McKay agreed and said that had Network Rail become aware of deviations from the approved design, it would have halted construction and raised it with Carillion and Arup.
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New measures to prevent another accident
A new drainage system with improved capacity and features intended to prevent another washout has since been installed at the location of the crash.
Guard rails have also been fitted on the tracks on the approach to the bridge near Carmont to prevent a partly derailed train from hitting the structure itself.
Scotland’s Railway has also created a permanently staffed weather desk position, which is responsible for monitoring weather conditions and advising controllers on the necessary precautionary actions.
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Coaches lacked safety features
Dominique Louis, a principal inspector at RAIB, told the inquiry the 50-year-old coaches lacked a number of safety features that are now standard in modern trains.
He said: “The RAIB considers it more likely than not that the outcome would have been better if the train had been compliant with modern crashworthiness standards.”
The on-train data recorder showed it was travelling at 73mph at the time of the crash, just below the normal speed for the line concerned.
The signaller who instructed driver Mr McCullough to go at normal speed just minutes before it crashed into the landslip was said to be “entirely compliant” with the rules in place at the time.
Network Rail was fined £6.7m in 2023 after pleading guilty to health and safety failings which led to the deaths. In the same year, almost £1m in damages was secured from the rail operator for seven people affected by the crash.
Carillion went into compulsory liquidation in January 2018 and is not a party in the ongoing FAI.
The inquiry before Sheriff Lesley Johnson continues.
