Sheriff: faulty drain could have prevented Carmont derailment

By James Calloway

Three people died and six passengers were injured when train 1T08 derailed at Carmont near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, on August 12, 2020. Sheriff Lesley Johnson’s fatal accident inquiry found that the derailment could have been avoided if contractor Carillion had built a drain correctly.

ScotRail driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the derailment on the line between Dundee and Aberdeen. Johnson said they sustained multiple blunt-force injuries that the inquiry described as unsurvivable. She issued her 199-page determination on Wednesday after the inquiry heard evidence earlier this year.

What did the drain investigation find?

• Carillion built the drain in two phases, in 2011 and 2012, against the design it had been given. Johnson said the work deviated from that design in several respects, including the piping and materials used.
• The construction included a bund, or ridge, which prevented the drain from operating as intended.
• Carillion failed to prepare as-built drawings of the completed drain and provide them to Network Rail. Johnson also said Network Rail failed to ensure that the drain was built properly and in line with the drawings, and failed to ensure it received the missing records.

Johnson wrote: “The drain was not constructed/installed in accordance with the design. As a result, the drain was unable to accommodate the flow of surface water during the intense rainfall in the area on August 12 2020.”

Heavy rain washed material from the drain onto the track, creating the washout that the train struck. Johnson’s findings placed the crash within failures by both the contractor and the infrastructure manager.

Network Rail admitted health and safety failings in a criminal prosecution and received a £6.7 million fine in 2023. Carillion entered compulsory liquidation in January 2018.

How did the train reach the washout?

• The Aberdeen-to-Glasgow service departed at 06:38 and passed the crash site before stopping for more than two hours because of a landslip farther down the line.
• At about 09:28, the train was authorised to return to Stonehaven.
• At about 09:37, it struck the washout beside the failed drain.

Johnson recorded that the train was travelling at around 73mph when it collided with the washout, “just below the normal speed for the line concerned as instructed by the signaller and in accordance with the railway rulebook.”

The collision derailed the train to the left before it struck the parapet of bridge 325 over Carron water, scattering the vehicles.

What changes remain after the inquiry?

Johnson made no new recommendations because the Rail Accident Investigation Branch had already issued 20 after what she described as its detailed and thorough investigation. She said the vast majority had been implemented and the remainder were being actively progressed, but the determination gave no completion date or measure of their effect on service.

Network Rail Scotland managing director Liam Sumpter said the company had worked since August 2020 on safety, the RAIB recommendations and support for the fatal accident inquiry. He also said Network Rail had made significant changes to its management of severe-weather risk to increase the resilience of Scotland’s railway.

That remains an operator claim rather than a measured service outcome: neither the statement nor the determination identifies the changes or quantifies any effect on disruption, capacity or cost. Their performance would have to be tested against subsequent rainfall and network data.

ScotRail chief operating officer David Ross said passenger and staff safety remained the company’s priority and that it operated only trains meeting the stringent safety requirements expected of the fleet. The source provides no fleet plan or audit against which that claim can be checked.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said it had participated fully in the working group established after the crash. General secretary Eddie Dempsey said the union supported every recommendation, particularly work concerning drainage, earthworks and weather forecasting.

RMT also backed withdrawal of the intercity fleet involved in the crash, describing it as ancient and not up to modern standards. Such a change would require a replacement and disposal programme, but the source gives no rolling-stock timetable, cost or capacity outcome.

Crown Office legal director Laura Buchan said the inquiry had provided a detailed public examination of the circumstances and contributing factors. She said the sheriff had found that important changes across the rail industry had addressed the safety issues identified.

Aslef Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said the publication would add to the families’ grief and that the tragedy should never have happened. He described the failings of Network Rail and Carillion as a severe governance and corporate failure that must not recur.

Johnson said the inquiry focused on those who lost their lives and on the matters set out in section 26 of the Act. She also recognised the six survivors, whose statements formed a crucial part of the evidence, and offered condolences to the victims’ families and friends.

The next operational test is whether the outstanding RAIB actions, including the drainage, earthworks and weather-forecasting work backed by RMT, are completed and withstand another period of intense rainfall on the Aberdeen–Glasgow route.