The Selby rail crash was a high-speed train accident that occurred at Great Heck near Selby, North Yorkshire, England on the morning of February 28, 2001. It killed 10 people and injured over 80 more.
The crash occurred at approximately 0612 (GMT), when a Land Rover driven by Gary Hart swerved off the M62 motorway just before the bridge which carries it over the East Coast Main Line. The car ran down an embankment and onto the railway track. It was almost instantly hit by a GNER Intercity 225 heading southbound from Newcastle to London King's Cross at over 100 mph. The Intericty 225 was pushed by Class 91 No. 91023 and led by a lightweight Driving Van Trailer. The train derailed and hit an oncoming freight train headed by a Class 66/5 No. 66521 half a mile (800 m) further down the line. The driver of 66521, Stephen Dunn was killed along with nine others.
Hart had escaped the collision unscathed. He claimed that his car had suffered a mechanical fault, or had collided with an object on the road. However, an investigation, including reconstruction of Hart's Land Rover to demonstrate that it was not mechanically defective, concluded that Hart had been driving in a sleep-deprived condition, and had not even braked the car as it went down the embankment. It later transpired that Hart had stayed up the previous night talking on the telephone to a woman he had met via an Internet dating agency.
In December 2001 he was tried on 10 counts of causing death by dangerous driving. He was found guilty, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
Despite Hart's conviction, campaigners have drawn attention to the inadequate length of the crash barriers alongside the road. According to the Health and Safety Executive's final report, the Land Rover had left the road some 24 metres before the barrier started, and had easily broken through the simple wooden fence that lined the track. However, a 2003 Highways Agency review of crash barriers on bridges over railways concluded that only three bridges nationwide were in need of upgrading. The bridge at Great Heck was not one of them.
In a bizarre coincidence, No. 91023 was also involved in the Hatfield rail crash some months earlier. The locomotive escaped with only slight damage on both occasions.
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