Highways Agency

Executive Summary

The Transport Research Laboratory (TRL Limited) has been appointed by the Highways Agency to undertake detailed independent investigations into the pertinent highways aspects of an incident that occurred during the morning of 28 February 2001 at Little Heck Railway Bridge, between Junctions 34 and 35 of the M62 Motorway.

The incident involved a Land Rover County motor vehicle towing a double axle trailer unit transporting a Renault Savanna motor car. This vehicle combination left the westbound carriageway of the motorway before reaching the bridge. It then descended the embankment to the nearside of the carriageway, breached two wooden boundary fences and came to rest immediately adjacent to, or partially across, the up-line of the East Coast main railway line. The Land Rover was then hit by a high-speed passenger train, which was consequently de-railed and eventually struck by a goods train some distance to the south of the motorway, near the village of Great Heck. As a result of the incident, ten people tragically lost their lives.

Investigations conducted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the railway industry, Humberside Police, North Yorkshire Police and British Transport Police are continuing at the time of writing of this report.

TRL's investigation has involved the detailed examination of the scene of the accident; specialist surveys of skidding resistance and other road surface characteristics, as well as consideration of documentation relating to the design, construction and maintenance of the relevant section of the M62 Motorway. TRL staff were on site between 28 February and 5 March 2001 inclusive.

TRL issued a Preliminary Opinion Report into the incident on 6 March 2001 and, since then, the data and other information obtained has been analysed and studied in detail so as to prepare this full investigation report. All of the opinions and conclusions expressed in the Preliminary Opinion Report have been supported by the further investigations and, in terms of the incident as a whole, the following conclusions have been drawn:

• The carriageway provision and geometry at the material location are consistent with motorway provision generally throughout the UK and provide no cause for concern.
• The material section of the M62 Motorway has been maintained in a responsible manner in general accordance with the required standards.
• It appears that, at the time of Mr Hart's accident, the carriageway surface was in a good condition and met the required standard of skidding resistance.
• There is currently no indication that any debris or defect was present on the carriageway surface around the material time and location.
• Although the vicinity was subject to a prolonged period of cold weather around the time of the accident, the available evidence does not indicate that frost, ice or snow was present on the road surface around the time of Mr Hart's accident.
• The timing and extent of winter maintenance operations undertaken around the time of the material accident are considered to have constituted a reasonable response to both the weather forecast information received and the actual weather conditions experienced.
• The nearside front wheel of the Land Rover appears to have first mounted the verge approximately 50 metres in advance of the safety fence installed on the nearside verge of the westbound carriageway in advance of the Little Heck Bridge parapet, and the safety fence was not struck during the course of the incident.
• This safety fence is 42.7 metres long in total, of which 33.5 metres constitutes full height provision and the remaining 9.2 metres comprising ramp down to a concrete terminal. The safety fence type and length complies with all relevant historical and current standards.
• In order for the full width of the front of the Land Rover to have struck a section of full height safety fence, the safety fence would have needed to extend along the verge for more than twice its current length.
• The Land Rover and its loaded trailer are greater in both mass and dimension than the vehicle configurations to which normal in-service safety fences are designed and tested. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to assess whether the safety fence provided at the material location would have contained the vehicle combination, even if it had been struck during the course of the incident. However, it is considered likely that some containment would have occurred and that this probably would have prevented the material vehicle combination from reaching the railway line.
• The accident history of the material site has been analysed. In the six years up to the 31 December 2000, no Personal Injury Accidents are reported to have occurred on the westbound carriageway of the M62 Motorway within one kilometre in advance of, and including, the Little Heck Railway Bridge.

TRL Limited, 30 March 2001