Selby rail crash | |
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Details | |
Date | 28 February 2001 06:13 UTC |
Location | Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire |
Coordinates | 53°41′14″N 1°05′53″W / 53.68722°N 1.09806°W |
Country | England |
Line | East Coast Main Line |
Operator | |
Service |
|
Cause | Obstruction on line |
Statistics | |
Trains | 2 |
Vehicles | 1 |
Deaths | 10 |
Injured | 82 |
List of UK rail accidents by year |
The Selby rail crash (also known as the Great Heck Rail Crash) was a railway accident that occurred on 28 February 2001 near Great Heck, Selby, North Yorkshire when a passenger train collided with a car which had crashed down a motorway embankment onto the railway line. The passenger train then collided with an oncoming freight train. Ten people died, including the drivers of the two trains, and 82 were injured. It remains the worst rail disaster of the 21st century in the United Kingdom.
The driver of the car, Gary Hart, was convicted of ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving and sentenced to five years in prison after a jury found that he had fallen asleep while driving. As a result of the crash, Hart's insurers paid out £30 million in claims.