Buttevant Rail Disaster

The Buttevant Rail Disaster was a train crash that occurred at Buttevant Railway Station, County Cork in Ireland, 220 kilometres (137 mi) on the Dublin to Cork main line on 1 August 1980. More than 70 people were injured, and 18 died, resulting in one of Ireland's worst rail disasters to ever occur.

Buttevant rail disaster
Details
Date1 August 1980
12:45
LocationButtevant
Coordinates52.2331°N 8.6669°W / 52.2331; -8.6669
CountryIreland
LineDublin–Cork railway line
OperatorIarnród Éireann
CauseExpress sent into sidings as points not interlocked
Statistics
Trains1
Passengers~230
Deaths18
Injured70+
Irish railway accidents

The accident

At 12:45pm the 10:00am Dublin (Heuston) to Cork (Kent) express train entered Buttevant station carrying 230 bank holiday passengers.[1] The train was diverted off the main line across a 1:8 temporary set of points into a siding. The locomotive remained upright but the carriages immediately behind the engine and generator van jack-knifed and were thrown across four sets of rail lines. Two coaches and the dining car were totally demolished by the impact. This resulted in the deaths of 18 people and over 70 people being injured.[2]

The accident happened because a set of manual facing points were set to direct the train into the siding.[1] These points had been installed about four months previously and were not connected to the signal cabin.[2] The permanent way maintenance staff were expecting a stationary locomotive at the Up platform to move into the siding and had set the points for the diversion to the siding without obtaining permission from the signalman. Upon seeing that this had been done, the signalman at Buttevant manually set the signals to the Danger aspect and informed the pointsman to reset the points.[2]

The train was travelling too fast to stop in time.[1] The derailment occurred at around 60 mph (97 km/h).

Local doctor Finbarr Kennedy was nearby at the time of the crash, waiting to cross the line, and was able to give aid to those injured.[3]

The train

The train consisted of 071 Class locomotive number 075, a generator van and 11 coaches.[2] Six of the coaches consisted of wooden bodies on steel underframes. Four of these were either destroyed or badly damaged in the impact, the two which survived being at the rear of the train. The remainder of the coaches were light-alloy Cravens stock; most of which survived the crash. The generator van, a modified BR Mark 1, was severely damaged. All of the vehicles were coupled using screw shackle couplings.

  • Locomotive 075 (1976), front plates damaged
  • Generator/boiler & guards van, No. 3191 (1971), severely damaged
  • Open 1st class, / timber body No. 1145 (1963), body destroyed
  • Buffet car / timber body No. 2408 (1953), body destroyed
  • Self-service car / timber body No. 2412 (1954), body destroyed
  • Standard carriage / plywood body No. 1491 (1961), badly damaged
  • Standard craven / light alloy frame No. 1529 (1964), badly damaged
  • Standard craven / light alloy frame No. 1527 (1964), body damaged
  • Standard craven / light alloy frame No. 1508 (1964), both ends damaged
  • Standard craven / light alloy frame No. 1542 (1965), one end damaged
  • Standard craven / light alloy frame No. 1541 (1965), no damage
  • Open standard / timber body No. 1365 (1953), no damage
  • Standard class and brake van / timber body No. 1936 (1959), no damage

Aftermath

This event, and the subsequent Cherryville junction accident, which killed a further seven people,[4] accounted for 70% of all Irish rail deaths over a 28-year period. CIÉ and the Government came under severe public pressure to improve safety and to modernise the fleet. A major review of the national rail safety policy was held and resulted in the rapid elimination of the wooden-bodied coaches that had formed part of the train.

The passengers who were most severely injured or killed were seated in coaches with wooden frames. This structure was incapable of surviving a high-speed crash and did not come near to the safety standards provided by modern (post-1950s) metal-body coaches. The expert bodies that reviewed that accident discovered that the old timber-frame carriage bodies mounted on a steel frame were totally inadequate as they were prone to complete collapse (the "accordion" effect) under the enormous compression forces of a high-speed collision. While the steel underbody remained structurally intact, other carriages could "mount" the frame, completely compress and destroy the wooden frame body.[5]

The more modern steel-framed carriage bodies survived due to their greater structural rigidity. On this basis, the decision to purchase a new fleet of modern intercity coaches based on the British Rail Mark 3 design was quickly made. The Mark 3's longitudinally corrugated roof can survive compression forces of over 300 tonnes. These coaches, an already well proven design, were built by BREL in Derby, England and, under licence, at CIÉ's own workshops at Inchicore in Dublin between 1983 and 1989.

Commemoration

On 8 August 2005, a commemoration marking the 25th anniversary was held at the station. A bronze sculpture in the shape of two crossing train tracks was unveiled alongside a plaque commemorating the names of the victims at the Buttevant Railway station.

References
  1. Roche, Barry (August 1, 2005). "Not a sound, then the screaming began". The Irish Times.
  2. Walsh, Patrick (27 July 2020). "40 years on, recalling tragedy in Buttevant". Irish Echo.
  3. O’Riordan, Sean (August 2, 2005). "The worst thing I ever witnessed. Just pure chaos". Irish Examiner.
  4. "Oireachtas Debates 1998". Oireachtas. 17 November 1998. Archived from the original on October 8, 2006.
  5. "Report of the Investigation into the Accident on the CIE Railway at Buttevant, Co. Cork, on 1st August, 1980" (PDF). Department of Transport (Ireland). April 1981.
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