KEY POINTS:
LONDON - Inspectors investigating the cause of a high-speed rail crash in Cumbria said today that a set of points near the site of the accident had been faulty.
Officials from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said in a preliminary report on the accident that one of three stretcher bars was absent, another had nuts and bolts missing and both were fractured.
An elderly woman died and 22 people were taken to hospital, when the Glasgow-bound Pendolino tilting train derailed last Friday at 95 mph in a remote country area, scattering carriages down a steep embankment.
"Investigation of the lock and stretcher bars in the facing points at Lambrigg crossover showed that one of three stretcher bars was missing, and bolts that secured the lock bar and another stretcher bar were not in place," the report said.
Stretcher bars are bolted across the moving rails, keeping them a fixed distance apart from each other.
Network Rail Chief Executive John Armitt said the company was "devastated" and accepted full responsibility: "We now need to understand how the points came to be in this condition -- and we will leave no stone unturned in our search for the facts behind this derailment."
The RAIB report said one of the stretcher bars was possibly fractured before Friday night's crash on the West Coast Main Line and one possibly after.
It also said there was no evidence that the bolts had been "wrenched free" and indications were that the points were the immediate cause of the derailment.
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said he took "his hat off" to Network Rail for being dignified in accepting responsibility for the accident.
Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander told parliament that investigators would continue to study the "immediate and underlying reasons" why one of the stretcher bars had been missing. The final report would take some months to be completed, he said.
Network Rail expects the West Coast Main Line to be remain closed for another 10 days and up to a maximum of two weeks, as engineers construct a steel road across soggy fields to move a crane to the crash site.
Five people seriously injured in the crash, including the train driver, remained in hospital on Monday.
Engineering experts said further fatalities were prevented by the strength of the carriages.
"This accident actually highlights the engineering advances that have been made over the past few years to maintain the structural integrity of trains and keep passengers safe," said Roger Kemp, professor of engineering at Lancaster University.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, has said the crash showed lessons had not been learnt from previous accidents.
Missing bolts were blamed for the failure of a points system which led to the 2002 Potters Bar crash that killed seven.
The worst rail accident in recent years was in 1999 when two trains collided near London's Paddington station, killing 31.
- REUTERS
