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Three people are confirmed to have been killed following a derailment of a passenger train near Stonehaven in Scotland after heavy rainfall this morning, which is believed to have triggered a landslide that caused the incident.
A major incident to the west of Stonehaven, on the rail line between Aberdeen and Dundee, has been declared by British Transport Police (BTP) as the rescue operation continues with more than 30 emergency response vehicles – including an air ambulance and coastguard teams – on site following the derailment. However, BTP has confirmed that three people have died at the scene including the train driver.
Smoke was seen rising from the crash site
Credit: Newsline Media
British Transport Police have said that its officers were on the scene at 9.43am today along with paramedics and the fire brigade. The train affected it understood to be the 6.38am Scotrail service from Aberdeen, which had already reported issues with flooding.
The timing of the incident follows on from a tweet by Network Rail Scotland which reported news of a landslip on the same rail line near Carmont to the west of Stonehaven.
Reports from the scene suggest that the train was formed by two engines – one each at the front and rear – with four passenger coaches. The derailment is understood to have resulted in the lead engine and three coaches leaving the track and falling down an embankment.
Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines is understood to have cut short a family holiday in Italy to travel to the scene.
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon described it as “an extremely serious incident” and added that it had occurred in a difficult location for emergency service access. She said that her thoughts were with all those involved.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch is expected to start an investigation into the incident.
Issues resulting from the heavy rainfall were also reported elsewhere on the Scottish rail network with the East Coast Main Line closed by a landslide and multiple reports of flooding. Landslips were also reported by Network Rail Scotland between Burntisland and Kinghorn, as well as flooding in Perth, Blackridge and Hartswood and lightning damage to overhead line equipment between Stirling and Dunblane.
The heavy rainfall also led to a major incident being declared in Fife where emergency services were called to rescue 28 people from Pettycur Bay Holiday Park following a landslide and flash flooding was also reported in the region.
Fife’s Local Resilience Partnership has been activated following the severe weather with flooding issues reported in Freuchie, Cairneyhill, Cardenden, Kinglassie, Culross and Lochgelly.
Elsewhere in Scotland, the A83 remains closed following last week’s landslides and the Old Military Road, which was also closed for a time, has been opened but is subject to overnight closures due to the risk of further ground movement.
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Condolences. Hard to believe, all that soil suddenly blocked the route – knowing the weather, study the route first – satellite or drone, warn the driver. In this case, cancel the train, “no go”.
By the time I looked up the weather, I could not find just when all that rain occurred to cause the earth slips. Looking at the contoured map, the location presents a risk.
Hindsight gives yo 20:20 vision! It’s always amazing how sensible people’s comments are after an event such as this. I’m sure ORR and investigators will come up with the definitive reasons and lessons learnt. Something must be being done correctly as this is the first fatal derailment for thirty years (if I was listening propefoto the news)
Properly
Devastating. A year or so ago I listened to an ICE talk about how Network Rail have to monitor slopes outside of their boundaries (as well as within them) for signs of potential landslips, etc. that could end up blocking their lines. Drones, etc. make this job easier but the ground can still catch people out as may have been the case here. Let us hope that the results of the investigation are available quickly.
not sure a drone would be a good tech fix here with all those trees. Lidar would be useless too. In other places they would be excellent tools; but why not fix lidar to the front of trains and monitor land movement against reference data every day….soon they will be on every self driving car, so its not beyond technical feasibility or cost.
I think the likes of drones, etc. are to get an overview of the general area rather than close up information such as what you are suggesting. I know that NR use LIDAR anyway.