Road and rail

24.2, derailment, fatality

UK: an elderly woman was killed and five people were seriously injured when a high-speed London-to-Glasgow train derailed in farmland near the town of Kendal on the edge of England’s Lake District. Firemen working in torrential rain were for a time unable to reach many passengers trapped in overturned train carriages, because of live power lines on the track. The state-of-the-art Pendolino tilting train crashed at a speed of 95 mph and slipped down an embankment. Twenty people went to hospital. The train had about 120 people on board. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) of the British Transport Police recovered two black box data recorders from the wreckage The derailment was thought to be caused by faulty points. The incident triggered at least £155.0mn of liability insurance cover, led by QBE Insurance (Europe). The policy was taken out by state-backed Network Rail, which is responsible for the maintenance of the track network. This is believed to be public liability policy, though QBE would not confirm this. QBE also confirmed that it was providing some of the insurance cover for Virgin Trains which owned and operated the express train that derailed.