| Selby rail crash | |
| Coordinates: | 53.6872°N -1.0981°W |
| Date: | 28 February 2001 |
| Time: | 06:13 UTC |
| Location: | Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire, England |
| Country: | England |
| Line: | East Coast Main Line |
| Operator: | Great North Eastern Railway |
| Cause: | Obstruction on line |
| Trains: | 2 |
| Deaths: | 10 |
| Injuries: | 82 |
| Footnotes: | List of UK rail accidents by year |
The Selby rail crash (also known as the Great Heck Rail Crash) was a high-speed rail accident that occurred on 28 February 2001 near Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire. Ten people were killed, including the drivers of the two trains involved, and 82 were seriously injured. It remains the worst rail disaster of the 21st century in the United Kingdom.
The accident occurred when an InterCity 225 passenger train operated by Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) travelling from Newcastle to London collided with a Land Rover Defender which had crashed down a motorway embankment onto the railway line. It was consequently derailed into the path of an oncoming freight train, colliding at an estimated closing speed of 142mph.
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.
The crash occurred at approximately 06:13, when a Land Rover Defender, driven by 37-year-old Gary Hart and towing a loaded trailer (carrying a Renault Savanna estate car), left the carriageway of the westbound M62 motorway just before a bridge over the East Coast Main 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 a southbound Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) InterCity 225 heading from Newcastle to London King's Cross. The sound of the InterCity 225's horn and the collision with the car was captured on Hart's 999 call.[1] The train was estimated to have been travelling at a speed of 120mph to 125mph at the time of the impact with the car.
The InterCity 225 was propelled by a Class 91 locomotive, No.91023 and led by Driving Van Trailer (DVT) No.82221. After striking the Land Rover, the leading bogie of the DVT derailed but the train stayed upright. Points to nearby sidings then deflected it into the path of an oncoming Freightliner freight train carrying coal[2] and travelling from Immingham to Ferrybridge, hauled by a Class 66 locomotive, No.66521.[3]
The freight train collided with the InterCity 225 approximately 642m (2,106feet) from the passenger train's impact with the Land Rover, resulting in the near-total destruction of the lightweight DVT and moderate to severe damage to all nine of the InterCity 225's Mark 4 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 overbridge ECM 2/7. The trailing locomotive was derailed, remained upright, and suffered minor damage. The Class 66 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 locomotive sustained major damage to its cab area and right side. The first nine wagons following it were derailed and damaged to varying extents. Two wagons that left the line with the Class 66 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.[3]
Immediately before the impact of the two trains, the speed of the InterCity 225 was estimated as 88mph and that of the freight train as 54mph. With an estimated closing speed of 142mph, the collision between the trains is the highest-speed railway incident that has occurred in the UK. A report by a working group set up by the Health and Safety Commission stated that they would expect a similar event to occur every 300 to 400 years.
Both train drivers, two additional train crew on board the InterCity 225, and six passengers were killed, all as a result of the collision involving the freight train.[4] Survivors of the crash included a train-driving instructor, Andrew Hill, who was travelling in the cab of 66521 and teaching a new route to the driver of the Class 66, a driver with 24years of experience.
The coaches of the InterCity 225 were carrying 99passengers and train staff. The early morning 04:45 departure time from Newcastle resulted in reduced passenger numbers. As it was, 45 of the 52 seriously injured passengers, and all eight fatalities (excluding the two locomotive drivers) were travelling in the first five coaches, which included a restaurant car and two first class coaches with less densely packed seating than standard coaches. In total 82 survivors were taken to hospital. The official incident report praised the crashworthiness of the InterCity 225's Mark4 coaches.
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 interim investigation 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.[5] At the time, an unusual aspect of the emergency response was the need to carry out disinfecting procedures at the scene because of the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Locomotive No.66526 has since been named "Driver Steve Dunn (George)", in memory of the Freightliner 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".[6] Dunn's son James, who was nine at the time of the crash, later became a train driver.[7] 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. The locomotives mentioned above also carried an explanatory plaque.[8]
John Weddle, the GNER driver killed in the collision, was honoured by way of a new driver-training school in his home city of Newcastle, which was named 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.[9]
Coincidentally, No.91023 had been involved in the Hatfield rail crash four months earlier. The locomotive escaped with only slight damage on both occasions. Technical upgrade of the Class91 fleet led to all locomotives having 100 added to their numbers (91001 became 91101, etc.), with the exception of 91023 being renumbered 91132, rather than 91123.[10] Nicknamed 'Lucky' as a result of its history, 91132 remained in service until 2021, when it was scrapped by Sims Metals Scrapyard in Nottingham.[11]
A memorial was created at the point where the carriages came to rest at 53.6815°N -1.0986°W.
Hart was later tried at Leeds Crown Court on ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving.[12] 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.[13] He had been on the phone call from 21:48 and 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.[14] As part of their investigation, the police tried to replicate the drive, which was 65miles 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.[15]
Hart denied the allegations, saying that he did not fall asleep, and he would have pulled over if he were tired.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18] 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.[19] [20]
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.[21] [22] 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.[23] 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.[24] 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.[25]