Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash - Immediate Cause

Immediate Cause

The immediate cause of the disaster was identified as the Turbo train passing signal SN109 (located on an overhead gantry – gantry 8 – with 4 other signals serving other tracks) at which it should have been held. It was established that the signal had been showing a red aspect, and the preceding signal (SN 87) had been showing a single yellow which should have led the driver to be prepared for a red at SN109. Since the Turbo driver, 31-year-old Michael Hodder, had been killed in the accident it was not possible to establish why he had passed the signal at danger. However, Hodder was inexperienced (he had only recently qualified as a driver)) and his driver training had been defective, whilst the signalling in the Paddington area was known to have caused problems – SN 109 had been passed at danger on eight occasions in six years, but Hodder had no specific warning of this. Furthermore, 5 October 1999 was a day of bright sunshine and at just past 8 o'clock the sun would have been low and behind Hodder, with low sunlight reflecting off yellow aspects. Deficiencies in ‘signal sighting’ (i.e. siting of signals to give good visibility and readability) meant that Hodder would have seen sunlit yellow aspects of SN109 at a point where his view of the red aspect of SN109 (but not of any other signal on the gantry) was still obstructed. The inquiry considered it more probable than not that the poor sighting of SN109, both in itself and in comparison with the other signals on and at gantry 8, allied to the effect of bright sunlight at a low angle, were factors which had led Hodder to believe that he had a proceed aspect.