British Rail Class 357 - Accidents

Accidents

On 5 November 2006 at about 00:30, 357 043 hit a red Ford Escort which had come off the road and crashed through a boundary fence onto the railway line. The driver of the car had lost control off New Road near the junction with Laurel Close in Leigh-on-Sea. The driver of the car and its passengers left the car before it was hit a few minutes later by the train. A police officer at the site tried to flag the train down before it reached the car but, although the train had slowed before hitting the car, it pushed the car about 100 yards along the line. The train driver and the four passengers on the train were uninjured. The left front valance of 357 043 was damaged. There are varying reports on the age of the driver and the number of passengers in the car.

In November 2006, 357 028 had to have its front valance removed whilst it was undergoing testing at Velim in the Czech Republic after it ran over two dogs and a deer, and almost ran over a local hunter, which were not expecting a train to pass at up to 100 mph (160 km/h) as the test track is not used very often.

On 9 December 2006, two Class 357 units, 357 002 and 357 043, were involved in a minor incident at East Ham Depot when one unit scraped down the side of the other. The undamaged driving car of 357 002 was used to temporarily replace the damaged driving car of 357 043 to form a hybrid unit, which was renumbered 357 099 under the TOPS system and remained in service with a guard due to the position of the Driver Only Operation (D.O.O.) mirrors. The damaged units, formed mostly of 357 002 with the driving car of 357 043, were renumbered 357 098 and sent to Crewe Electric TMD for repairs. Both trains were repaired and then had their normal numbering restored. They were due to re-enter service on Friday 5 October 2007, but actually re-entered service over the weekend of 13/14 October.

These accidents and units 357 028 and 357 045 being out of service at the same time led to two spare Class 321/4 units, 321 408 and 321 428, being loaned from sister National Express Group train operator Silverlink for three months for use at Monday-Friday peak hours on diagrams between Fenchurch Street-Pitsea via Rainham and Fenchurch Street-Laindon to cover for the unavailable Class 357 units. The Class 321 units were used with guards as they are incompatible with the positioning of c2c's face-on Driver Only Operation (D.O.O.) mirrors.