Second train 'minutes away' from hitting crash wreckage
A SECOND train was just minutes from disaster as it narrowly avoided ploughing into the Cumbria rail crash wreckage, it emerged today.
A train travelling from Scotland to England managed to stop just a couple of hundred yards from where the Glasgow-bound Virgin Pendolino left the track on Friday night.
Had it hit the wreckage the death and injury toll of one fatality and six serious injuries would have been far worse.
The RMT union revealed the lucky escape as it was confirmed that the crash investigation would focus on a pair of emergency points to the south of the scene of the accident.
With disruption between Carlisle and Preston and Lancaster likely to continue for more than a week, initial reports suggest that crucial bolts had come loose from the points used to divert trains on to the other track during maintenance. This is a chilling echo of what happened at the Potters Bar rail crash outside London Paddington in May 2002.
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