Harrow and Wealdstone Rail Crash - Report

Report

The Ministry of Transport report on the collision was published in June, 1953. Witnesses were interviewed, the visibility of the signals on the line examined, and tests showed no equipment fault on the Perth train or the signalling equipment. A post-mortem on the driver of the Perth train showed he had been in good health and had not drunk alcohol or been poisoned by carbon monoxide. After consideration, the report found that the signalman had not changed the route after the Perth train had passed the caution signal, concluding that the driver of the Perth train had not slowed his train in response to this signal and had then passed two danger signals before colliding with the Tring train.

The report praised the then new steel British rail standard coaching stock that had survived better than the older wooden and steel coaches and stressed that the rules of the railway were correct, and that safety depended on drivers obeying signals. The report considered a system warning drivers that they had passed a signal at caution or danger would have prevented ten percent of the accidents in the previous forty-one years, saving 399 lives, including the 112 at Harrow, British Rail had under development an "automatic train control" system that warned drivers of an adverse signal and automatically applied the brakes until this was cancelled by the driver and by the time the report had been published a five-year plan had been agreed to install this system on 1,332 miles (2,144 km) of line.