Summary
At around 1309 on 27 December 2023, the 1046 Perth to Aberdeen passenger service collided with a fallen tree approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Broughty Ferry, Dundee. The train was travelling at around 84 mph (135 km/h) when the collision occurred. The train suffered significant damage to the leading driving cab. There were no physical injuries to the 37 passengers and three staff members on board the train.
The tree had fallen from Barnhill Rock Gardens, a public park owned by Dundee City Council, and was brought down by winds during Storm Gerrit. This storm had been subjecting the area to high winds and heavy rain for several hours preceding the accident. RAIB’s investigation found that the soil in which the tree was rooted had characteristics which limited the tree’s ability to resist the wind forces acting on it. In addition, three other trees at this location had been felled before May 2023, increasing the exposure of the tree which fell to winds from the Firth of Tay.
Around 12 minutes before the collision, a member of the public became aware that a tree had fallen across the railway and contacted Network Rail using the public helpline. The helpline call handler attempted to pass this information on to Network Rail’s Scotland route control on a number of occasions, but the call from the helpline call handler was not answered until after the accident. This meant that a warning about the fallen tree did not reach the driver of the train in time to prevent the accident.
The risk of trees in Barnhill Rock Gardens falling onto the railway not being effectively controlled was the factor underlying the accident. Network Rail is reliant on neighbouring landowners controlling the risk associated with visually healthy trees falling onto the railway lines from outside of the railway boundary. However, Dundee City Council did not effectively manage the risk of trees falling from its land onto the adjacent railway lines.
As a consequence of the accident, the survival space in the cab was considerably reduced. The driver only escaped serious injury by crouching behind the driving seat once they had made an emergency brake application on realising the collision was inevitable. RAIB also observed that the telephone equipment used at Scotland integrated control centre did not display missed call information.
Since this accident, Network Rail has provided helpline staff with an additional contact telephone number for use in emergencies.
Recommendations
RAIB has made three recommendations as a result of its investigation. The first of these is to Network Rail to consider how technology could assist in the detection of trees subject to altered exposure, including those trees on third-party land. The second recommendation is that Dundee City Council should review its management of the trees for which it is responsible to ensure that it is effectively controlling the risk of them falling onto the railway.
RAIB has also recommended that the Rail Safety and Standards Board’s Carmont recommendations steering group should review its response to recommendation 19 made within RAIB report 02/2022, following the investigation into the derailment of a passenger train at Carmont, Aberdeenshire on 12 August 2020.
Notes to editors
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The sole purpose of RAIB investigations is to prevent future accidents and incidents and improve railway safety. RAIB does not establish blame, liability or carry out prosecutions.
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RAIB operates, as far as possible, in an open and transparent manner. While our investigations are completely independent of the railway industry, we do maintain close liaison with railway companies and if we discover matters that may affect the safety of the railway, we make sure that information about them is circulated to the right people as soon as possible, and certainly long before publication of our final report.
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