Country England Date 15 October 1907 Injuries 33 Trains 1 | Cause Overspeed on curve Total number of deaths 18 Rail line Welsh Marches line Location Shrewsbury | |
The Shrewsbury rail accident occurred on 15 October 1907. An overnight Sleeping-Car and Mail train from Manchester to the West of England derailed on the sharply curved approach to Shrewsbury station, killing 18 people.
Contents
Casualties
Those killed were the engine driver and fireman, two guards, eleven passengers, and three Post Office sorters working in the Mail train. Thirty-three other people were reported injured.
The train
Speed was estimated at 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) on a curve limited to 10 miles per hour (16 km/h). The train left Crewe at 01:20 having had extra carriages added (originating in Glasgow, York and Liverpool) to form a heavy 15 carriage train, hauled by LNWR Experiment class 4-6-0 No. 2052 Stephenson.
Other derailments
The accident was the last in a series of three derailments due to excessive speed at night in a 16-month period. The others were at Salisbury and Grantham (both in 1906). All three resulted in deaths, including the footplate crews; the cause in each case was recorded as 'driver error' but there has been much speculation since.
Possible explanation
The day after the accident an official enquiry began, coinciding with an inquest into the driver and fireman, held in Shrewsbury and which was attended by the President of the Board of Trade, David Lloyd George. It lasted three days, the report being published on 12 February. No fault was found with the engine's braking power and reliability, while after detailed hearing into the health and sobriety of the driver, the finding was that alcohol and drugs were not present in his body from post-mortem examination and he had not suffered a seizure.
The report concluded the most likely explanation of the Shrewsbury crash was that the driver had dozed off briefly, missing the signal, and therefore had not braked in time on the downhill entry to Shrewsbury, while the fireman evidently had not realised this until too late.