Pineview rail crash

The **Pineview rail crash** was a rail accident which occurred on 30 June 2016 close to Pineview, Cola Hills, Leeds, when a busy passenger train collided with an oil tanker wagon from a derailed freight train. Of the 107 passengers on board the train, plus two traincrew, at least 50 have been seriously injured.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the actions of both train drivers were praised as potentially saving dozens of lives, as the freight train driver warned the train to slow down before the derailment came into view, and the passenger train driver warned passengers to evacuate to the rear of his train in the final moments before impact. The freight train driver was unhurt, but the passenger train driver was killed in the crash.

## Timeline of events

### Trains involved

The freight train involved was the 10:34 oil tanker train from Westhills Oil Refinery to Porttown East Export Dock, operated by Newleaf Cargo Rail using Class 60 diesel-electric locomotive number 60003. The driver reported an uneventful journey up until the derailment.

The passenger train involved was the 12:24 Leeds Rail departure from Pineview, bound for Leeds Mall and calling at West Riverbank, East Riverbank and Malford. The train involved was three-car Class 171 *Turbostar* diesel multiple unit number 171109, built in 2004.

### Background

The weather at the time of the accident was hot and sunny, with temperatures in the area reaching 32ºC (90ºF) on what was the hottest day of the year so far for most of northern Leeds. As a result of the high temperatures in the area, a short section of track just outside Pineview buckled.

### Freight train derailment

The freight train passed over the track buckle at around 47mph. The locomotive and first ten wagons did not derail, although the driver did report the locomotive swaying as it passed over the buckle, making a light brake application in order to stop by the next signal and inform the signalman.

However, wagons 11 and 12 down the train derailed as they passed over the buckle, with both bogies of both wagons derailing to the right of the track. Wagon 13 then derailed to the left, and the train separated between wagons 12 and 13, causing an emergency brake application in the front portion of the train. Wagons 14 and 15 subsequently derailed and overturned after striking signalling equipment. This caused wagons 16 and 17 to jack-knife, with wagon 17 coming to a rest over the adjacent line. Wagon 18 also overturned while wagons 19 and 20 derailed but remained upright. The final two wagons did not derail.

The driver of the freight train was initially unaware of the derailment and contacted the local signalman to report an unexpected emergency brake application and asked if he could inspect the train. The signalman was already aware of an issue due to warning lights in his box as a result of the damage to signalling equipment caused by the derailment, and allowed the driver to exit his train.

It was at this point that the driver spotted the derailed wagons around half a mile down the line, including one resting across both tracks. He also saw a passenger train heading towards him in the direction of the derailment, and attempted to flag it down to a halt.

### Collision

The 12:24 passenger service had poor visibility of the derailment as a result of its location on a long bend in the railway. However, upon spotting the freight train driver by side of his stopped locomotive attempting to flag him down, the passenger train driver made a moderate brake application. At the time of the brake application, the train was travelling at 98mph, close to its maximum speed and the maximum permitted line speed for the location, 100mph.

At around this time, the passenger train driver was contacted by the signalman who warned of potential signalling issues reported by another driver along that section of track. The signalman put a 50mph emergency speed restriction in place on the track and relayed this information to the passenger train driver, but it was too late for the train to slow down to that speed.

The train was 200 metres from derailed wagon 17 when it came into view as the train cleared the bend, and the driver immediately made an emergency brake application. He then exited his cab and warned passengers to move as far down the train as possible. Within around seven seconds, the train struck wagon 17 at around 62mph.

The passenger train made a head-on impact with the wagon. The impact caused the wagon, fully laden with petrol, to explode on impact. The angle of the wagon across the track, as well as the force of the explosion, deflected the leading carriage of the train slightly to the left, derailing it down an embankment, where it crashed through trees and overturned onto its left hand side. The leading cab and front third of the carriage was 'completely obliterated' by the explosion.

The second carriage was dragged away from the track to the left by the derailment of the leading carriage, before separating from it, striking debris thrown out onto the track by the explosion, and overturning violently onto its right hand side while travelling around 50mph.

The third and final carriage initially telescoped into the back of the second carriage, before riding over it completely as it overturned, crushing the rear of the second carriage. This caused the front of the third carriage to rise into the air, and the carriage snapped into two sections around the centre of the carriage. The first section came to a halt largely intact on top of the rear of the second carriage, while the second section first overturned to the right and was then forced off the track to the left and crashed down the same embankment as the first carriage, spinning around by 180 degrees in the process.

### Fire

The explosion of the first oil tanker wagon caused adjacent oil wagons, filled with petrol fuel, to burst into flames. Eventually, all ten separated freight wagons caught fire, causing a huge fireball which hampered the evacuation of the passenger train and subsequent rescue efforts. However, the fire did not spread to the passenger carriages themselves; had it done so, any passengers still trapped within the mangled wreckage alive would have inevitably been killed.