Potters Bar crash: The report

Engineers are inching the carriage to safety

The interim report by the Health and Safety Executive into the Potters Bar rail crash has been published.

Here are the key points:

• A fault in a set of points south of the station caused the derailment

• Track maintenance records, particularly those in relation to the points, have been secured by British Transport Police (BTP)

• A BTP video of the event believed to have been recorded by station cameras will be examined in detail

• There is no evidence so far to support the theory the points had been vandalised or deliberately damaged

• There is also no evidence the signals were at fault or the train badly driven

• The WAGN train was travelling up to 100 mph (161 km/h) and the rear part of the train derailed about 150 metres (492 feet) to the south of the station

  

  The points in question
  

• The coach sustained significant external damage but passenger accommodation remained largely intact

• Internal fittings and furniture became detached, and windows shattered

• The driver followed set procedures, placing track circuit clips on adjacent lines to prevent other trains going through the crash site

• The coaches involved in the derailment had been found to stand up well to the high-impact forces generated when they came into contact with the fixed infrastructure of the railway

• The infrastructure at the scene - the railway bridge crossing the road and the station buildings - was found to have withstood the impact well

• The train involved was about four years old and had done just below a million miles (1.61 million kilometres)