Nearly half safety recommendations into fatal Carmont rail crash still to be completed on 5th anniversary
Union anger at lack of faster action
Passengers and staff remain at risk because nearly half the safety recommendations made after a fatal rail crash near Stonehaven have still to be fully implemented, a union has highlighted on its fifth anniversary on Tuesday.
Eight of the 20 improvements, most directed at track owner Network Rail, remain “open”, which the Rail, Maritime and Transport union said meant “safety critical safety issues have still not been addressed”.
Driver Brett McCullough, conductor and RMT member Donald Dinnie, and passenger Chris Stuchbury, died on August 12, 2020 when an Aberdeen-Glasgow ScotRail train hit debris washed onto the line at Carmont by heavy rain because of a wrongly-built drain.
Network Rail was fined a record £6.7 million in 2023 after admitting health and safety failings.
Safety recommendations made in a report by the official investigation into the crash, published nearly three-and-a-half years ago, included measures still to be completed such as derailment mitigation, drainage design and “risk assessment of mitigating controls”.
The others related to new works and maintenance processes, control room capability, and management assurance of control room functions.
The other two outstanding recommendations, on the crashworthiness of pre-1994 trains and corrosion limits, were directed at train owners and operators respectively, the latter including ScotRail. Replacements for the 40-year-old High Speed Train (HST) fleet involved are being sought by Transport Scotland.
The UK Department for Transport’s rail accident investigation branch, which made the recommendations, said in May: “A lot of work has been undertaken and progress made in closing the recommendations. However, eight remain open, indicating that there is still work to do.”
“There must be action, and it needs to be urgent”
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said “Our thoughts today are with the families of Donald, Brett and Chris, and with those injured and traumatised in the crash.
"But remembrance alone is not enough – there must be action, and it needs to be urgent.
“It is outrageous that five years after the accident took place, and three years since the RAIB set out what needed to change, that so many safety recommendations are still outstanding.”
Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the Transport and Salaried Staffs Association, said: “Every single recommendation from the RAIB report into this tragedy must be implemented without delay.”
“Meaningful progress”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Meaningful progress has been made on the recommendations from the investigation, which includes co-ordinated action across all Network Rail routes.
“Since August 2020, we’ve been working hard to make our railway safer for passengers and colleagues. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, we changed how train services are managed during severe weather warnings.
"We’re investing more than £400m in projects to strengthen the railway’s resilience to increasingly unpredictable weather.
“This includes enhanced weather forecasting with dedicated meteorologists, which allows us to introduce targeted speed restrictions or close lines when extreme conditions are expected.”
ScotRail service delivery director Mark Ilderton said: “The RAIB report was clear the HSTs were not the cause of the accident, and the fleet has received all the necessary legal and safety certifications authorising them as safe to operate on the UK rail network.
“Significant steps”
“In line with the recommendations, we also made changes to the fleet with the introduction of upgraded lifeguards, which will better protect the train wheels from obstacles, helping to reduce the possibility of an accident occurring.
“Additionally, as part of our process of modernising our fleet, the procurement process is already underway to replace the HSTs, having been launched late last year.”
An spokesperson for the Office of Rail and Road regulator said: “The rail industry has taken significant steps to understand and address the causes and many recommendations have been closed.
“With those that remain open, they have agreed plans to implement the recommended actions. They are significant, fundamental improvement plans which are not short-term quick fixes.”
A UK Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Safety is the utmost priority, which is why the UK Government has committed £2.8 billion over the next five years for Network Rail to improve the railway’s resilience to extreme weather and prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”
Transport Scotland said rail safety was reserved to the UK Government but it “fully expected” the measures to be implemented.
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