HC Deb 15 May 1905 vol 146 cc282-3
MR. BELL (Derby)

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Board of Trade whether he has received a report of an accident which occurred at Copy Pit, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, on 23rd April last, to the 9.20 p.m. goods train, Hollinwood to Rose Grove, which consisted of 120 loaded wagons, weight 1,000 tons, with, two engines in front and one in the rear, due to the drawbar hook of the eightieth wagon from the train engine breaking whilst the train, owing to its length, hung over both sides of the summit, and the latter portion running back and off the line at some catch points; and whether he proposes to take any action with a view to preventing such accidents.

MR. BELL

I beg also to ask the Secretary to the Board of Trade if he has received a report of a breakaway which occurred at Copy Pit, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, on 5th May instant, to the 7.23 p.m. goods train from Leeds to Rose Grove, consisting of eighty loaded wagons with two engines in front and one in the rear, the front portion running away to Cliviger East Cabin; whether he can state the number of accidents and breakaways which have occurred during the last three years in this district of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and if they were due to the length of the trains; and whether he will take immediate action with a view to preventing such accidents.

MR. BONAR LAW

Neither of these accidents has been reported to the Board of Trade, nor do the circumstances as stated by the hon. Member appear to have been such as to require them to be reported, if, as I gather, no personal injury resulted. Since the 1st January, 1902, eleven accidents in the district referred to, due to the breaking away of parts of goods trains, have been reported by the railway company in question, although in eight of these cases no one was injured. The Board's information does not show whether the length of the trains caused or contributed to any of these accidents. Advantage will be taken of an inquiry about to be held by one of the Board's inspecting officers into another accident in the neighbourhood to make some investigation into the general question to which the hon. Member has drawn attention.