After the crash on Friday where one person died and five were seriously injured on a track near Grayrigg, the rail company has admitted responsibility and apologised to all 115 passengers and the families of those injured and of Margret Masson, the 84 year old woman killed in the crash.
A key component of the signalling equipment was said to be missing, the fault occured where there was nothing to prevent the outerarm of the tracks, which switch trains from one track to another, from closing the main rail. The trainwhich was travelling at 90mph was forced into a narrowing channel and it sprang off the rails. Ths fatal mistake was not discovered before the crash because the netwrok rail failed to carry out a schedueled visual inspection 6 days before the crash.
If the rails had been checked, the control room would have been informed and a 20mph speed limit set untill the line was replaced. A Network Rail spokesperson said " The most likely conclusion we can draw is that it is a failure in the maintenance of these points and we would like to apologise to everyone involved. We are absolutely devasted that this happened on our watch."
The driver of the train was said to be 'distraught" after learning that someone had died, despite his heroic efforts in trying to maintain the train's speed after it had derailed. Mr Iain Black, the driver, 46 from Dumbarton, is still recovering in hospital after the crash, said " I am obviously distraught that one person died in the accident and saddened about those who remain seriously ill and i wish them all a speedy recovery. I'm just glad more people were not seriously injured.