A head-on fatal collision between two trains in mid Wales could have been avoided, an investigation has found.

[IT Minion]

Completely confused here. The train has a button to put sand on the rail to increase breaking in an emergency?

Surely the brake system should “know” that the brakes are being applied with maximum force and automaticity do this if the rate of braking is not optimal.

The automatic sanding system did know it needed to be dispensing sand and was supposed to be doing it as part of the ABS equivalent. However it didn't activate probably due to an electrical fault.

An additional far more powerful single use manual system is there for the driver to use if the automatic system is broken, insufficient, or it is locked out due to various factors. That's the one attached to the button. The driver didn't think to use it because the level of training was insufficient.

 

[IT Minion]

Perhaps some longer waiting distances then in case it happens again, I'm sure they could come up with a more constructive answer than telling the drivers to lob sand out of the window or whatever.

One of the report recommendations was to reassess all the overrun assessments that were don't using the simple approval method that was used for that passing loop.

From reading the report the probable change they'll make will be to lower the speed limit into the junction. The driver was going too fast, not braking hard enough early enough, easing off the brakes for a bit before they then hit the emergency braking limits. That's obvious with hindsight and all the time in the world, but I expect a lot harder to realise on a rainy dark evening plus the train dashboards didnt handle the changing speed limits well so probably hid the need to brake harder. If those limits had been set (perhaps) 10km/s lower then the crash probably wouldn't have happened.