The Railway Accident Investigation Branch has notified The Mid Norfolk Railway that their preliminary investigation into the incident at the Norwich Road level crossing in Dereham on the 10 December 2020 has been completed and that they will be issuing a safety digest in the next few weeks.
The incident was caused when the centre carriage of a three-car class 144 Pacer unit, in the words of the RAIB, “detached from a winch rope during unloading from a heavy haulage road trailer directly onto the railway. It ran away and collided with the gates of a nearby level crossing. The vehicle broke through the gates and came to rest over an open, public road.”
The issuing of the safety digest will bring the RAIB involvement with the incident to a close.
"On behalf of the Trust and the railway's members I would like to thank all of our staff who have worked to resolve this issue both at the time and subsequently. As a railway we are fortunate to have a number of very experienced railway people as well as members with the right skill sets who dealt with this incident in a calm and professional manner. I can assure the membership and our traveling public that as a railway we will be actioning the recommendations of the RAIB, but are also looking at our own procedures in a critical way to ensure such an incident cannot happen again. Finally I would also like to take this opportunity to wish all those associated with the railway a happy Christmas and I am sure we all look forward to a better 2021 when we will once again be operating passenger carrying trains." Charlie Robinson Chairman of the Mid-Norfolk Railway Preservation Trust