Colwich Rail Crash - Investigation

Investigation

After the accident, the driver went to the signal box and told the signalman "You had double flashing yellows and the route was set for Stoke". With "traditional" junction layouts in mind, he thought that flashing yellows meant that the line was clear for him right through the junction. It was not; the signalling system regarded the crossover from the Down Fast to the Down Slow as the "junction", and the driver was not expecting to see a red signal before taking the Stoke line.

The public inquiry centred on whether the driver had had adequate training on the recently introduced flashing yellow signals and the implications at multiple junctions (Hall 1987). The driver admitting to signing for, but not actually reading, the Notice that referred to the installation of flashing yellows at Colwich the previous month.

A contributory factor was the lack of flank protection given the layout at Colwich Junction. The accident would not have happened if the points had been set for the train to go parallel to, rather than head-on into, the Liverpool train's path; similarly to Ladbroke Grove (Hall 2003), and as would have been normal practice in an older manual installation.