A heavy goods vehicle that left Belfast’s M2 motorway after a road crash ended up on the railway beside the Belfast to Derry-Londonderry line, prompting an investigation into how the truck breached the boundary and narrowly avoided a passing train.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch said the incident happened at about 4:40 p.m. on March 20, when the HGV, traveling northbound, collided with another road vehicle and then struck a containment barrier at the edge of the motorway. The barrier forms part of the separation between the M2 and the adjacent railway, but it did not prevent the truck from leaving the carriageway. The HGV entered the rail corridor and came to rest in the cess next to the up line, just clear of passing trains.
Soon after, a Northern Ireland Railways service from Larne Town to Belfast approached the location. RAIB said the driver saw the HGV ahead, applied the brakes and passed the vehicle at about 16 mph without striking it. The train then stopped at York Street station, where the driver alerted the signaller.
The HGV driver was injured in the initial road traffic collision. RAIB said the incursion onto the railway damaged the truck, the containment barrier and fencing, and rail infrastructure.
Investigators said they will examine the sequence of events and review how the risk of road vehicles entering the railway is managed at the site, including the type of containment in use, as well as Northern Ireland’s broader strategy for controlling vehicle incursion risks. RAIB noted its inquiry is independent of investigations by the railway industry or Northern Ireland’s health and safety regulator.
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