Knockcroghery Derailment - RTÉ News Report from 1997
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- Опубликовано: 6 дек 2013
- RTÉ's news report on the day of the rail incident in which a Dublin - Westport morning service derailed 2 miles west of Knockcroghery, Co. Roscommon.
Saturday 8th November 1997.
Wow, where did you get this! Amazing historical footage It's really frightening to think what could have happened. Thank God nothing this serious has happened since, touch wood. What incident were they referring to when they mention 50 people were injured in 1989?
Found it on a VHS tape I recorded back then along with 2 other IÉ related reports (will be up later). Totally forgot I had this footage! The cause was apparently a broken fishplate due to poor trackbed condition (sinkage).
That other incident was a derailment involving a herd of Cattle near Claremorris in September of that year.
Diana, that one letter you sent here in the mail. I looked at the post date on the envelope. I mentioned it to you that I would be very surprised if something did not happen. That was because I was very much expecting something to happen and what I was expecting had been voiced and spoken about in detail. And what happened later matched 100%, what had been voiced. By the time you got that letter, it had already been established for months that my train would be derailed in Ireland. And how did I know that? This is how.
I found out they were going to derail my train. That there would be horrible Carnage and mutilation and dismemberment. I knew that the front of the train would be the most severely damaged. I knew that I would be knocked around but I would come out of it okay. Just after getting this knowledge, and this was when I was in my room in the barracks in Frankfurt Germany, my roommate, Jimmy Rowe, walks in. Okay so I told him that I was going on a eurail trip that summer and that they were going to derail my train. I gave him all the information as you read above. at first he said it was impossible for me to know that. He said it was crazy. He said it sounded paranoid. I told him paranoia had nothing to do with it. It was really going to happen. He asked me if I had told this to anyone else? I told him no I had not. He advised me not to mention this to anybody. He said they would think I was crazy. He asked if I was trying to get a section 8 discharge out of the army. Why would I have done that? I joined the army so I could travel and live in Europe. There I was doing what I wanted to do. Anyway I asked him to do this. I said I know this is going to happen. Just give me some advice and talk to me as though you know that it's going to happen. And guess what, he actually did that. He asked when is it going to happen? I said I don't know only that it will happen when I am there for it to happen. He asked me where will it happen? I told him I do not know that either but only to say that it will happen at the location where I am. After that he asked me where I planned to go on this eurail trip. I told him mainly to Ireland and Rome and Italy. So Jimmy Rose started talking about various incidents that had happened around the continent Continental Europe. Then he started talking about Ireland. He mentioned there had been several suspicious incidents in Ireland. You know what he told me? He said I don't think that you could possibly know anything like this, but, in my opinion if it happens anywhere it will be in Ireland. Jimmy Rowe told me that. I said the same thing. It will happen in Ireland. What was the date of this conversation? The year for 100% sure was 1980. It might have been in the month of April or May.
Right at the end of July in 1980 I went on official leave from the army in Frankfurt Germany. I had a backpack. Took the train to Brussels where I spent the night in the hostel. Next day took the train to North coastal France where I caught the overnight ferry to Ross lair harbor on Southeast coastal Ireland. Rossler harbor is just North of old kinsale head and it was off old kinsale head where German u-boats torpedoed the passenger ship Lusitania. From rossler harbor I took the train North to Dublin. Spent a day or two there. Two women from Australia, Claire Lawrence and Enid Pasco, and I took the bus one morning to the main train station in Dublin. On the way to the train station I told them to sit as far to the rear of the train as possible with their backs to the direction of travel. I told them something bad could happen. I think they left it off at first. I told him two or three times to do what I told him that it's not a joke. We got our tickets.
Starting from the very rear of the train, I walked forward looking in each window. The first place I saw where I could sit with my back to the direction of travel, I went in and sat there. Ain't it and clear set further to the rear and whether they took my advice or not they would be okay because they were far enough to the rear. We left the station sometime around 10:00 a.m. on August 1st 1980. Approximately two and a half hours later I'm not sure of the time, they derailed the train. By far most of the damage was done to the front of the train. People were horribly mutilated, bodies cut in half, people dismembered, contused over every inch of their bodies, horribly disfigured and profoundly disabled for life. Killed 18 people and injured 70. I was thrown back with enough force that my body tore two sets of steel-bolted train seats right up out of the floor and smashed a steel bolted table flat. I managed to dig myself out of the rubble under which I was partially encased. I got a small group to go into the wreckage and help people in any way they could like treatment for short and stopping bleeding. I got specific help for a young woman I saw in the wreckage. Her left leg was chopped off just below the knee and she was in very bad conditions otherwise. They awarded me the army commendation medal for that. It was supposed to be the soldiers medal which, they say, is the highest metal that can be awarded in peacetime not facing an enemy Force. But that's okay. I did not join the army to get medals. I did not want a medal. I only wanted to travel and live in Europe. Claire and Enid walked up into this town of Buttervent. They saw a man there and told him what I had told them in the bus on the way to the train station. He took them in his vehicle to his house just north of the town. He left them there with his wife. He went back to the Civic center in that town. Later I showed up there. He approached me and asked me who I was and when we established yes I'm John Shaw. He told me Claire and Enid or at his house and he invited me to go there. Okay so I have to get in a train wreck before I get an invitation in Ireland but I figured well what the hell I am here so I told him yes. So we got in his car and went to Velvet town house just north of this town of buttevant. He asked a series of very pointed specific questions. I will tell you what he asked me. Are you a member of any terrorist organization? Have you ever been a member? Do you know anyone who is in a any terrorist organization? Did you know anything about what happened today? Did anybody tell you that this would happen? Have you ever heard of the Irish Republican army? Do you know anybody in the Irish Republican army? Do you know anyone who has had any contact with the Irish Republican army or any terrorist organization?
I answered no to everything. I answered no. The fact is the truth would have been yes. I mean, how do you think I knew this was going to happen to begin with? Divine intervention? I just denied everything. Just because you know something it doesn't mean that you have to tell it. Somebody might be asking questions and that's okay. You do not have to answer those questions and you do not have to give them information and that's okay too.
Apart from the distress and injuries caused to passengers, a lot of good came out of that incident.
That accent hasn't changed one iota in over seventeen years though has it?
Jesus that's some accident, thank God no one was killed !
It was pretty nasty alright, I'd say the solid construction of the Mark 3s played a major part in the fact there was no serious injuries.
The Irish Mainline I know, mark 3s are very sollid. I heard how in the 1980's there was a case where a set of points at a sharp angle to the track, leading to a freight siding failed to change, and a passenger train going 90 mph was derailed, due to the great speed and sharp angle of the points. It jumped off the tracks and went across the freight yard, stopping suddenly when it hit some freight wagons. The sudden stop caused the carriages to concertina into the loco. The carriages were weakly built, and so crushed on top of one another. Several people were killed. Afterwards many people said if there were stronger built coaches with buck eye couplers nobody would have been injured.
That's the Buttevant disaster you're referring to. The coaching stock that day was a mixture of Laminates (wooden bodied) and Cravens (steel bodied). The laminates were totally destroyed but the Cravens remained intact and saved many lives. The loco, 075 even survived the crash herself and still operates to this day on freight duties.
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder if they released the information on what caused the derailment.
I think a broken fishplate was the cause.
I wonder was there a trolley service.
Do you have footage from the 1989 Knock Crash?
I don't I'm afraid sorry.
@@TheIrishMainline Ah ok, my parents and grandmother we're in that crash and I can't seem to find any footage or articles anywhere but nice to hear it was mentioned here!
@@InspireWire I found some footage in the RTÉ archives: www.rte.ie/archives/collections/news/21359308-claremorris-train-crash/ Hope your relatives escaped unhurt.
that was some incident man i say IR are thankful that it hasn't happened since then
I think they've learnt their lesson Joseph although it always takes something like this for it to happen :/
May I share your video
Sure Eóin no problem
That was some crash that train had!
It was pretty nasty Cian, amazing how everyone escaped uninjured.
where are our people
some of us are still here
poor train 😢😢😢
sad
I know the crossing at Curry, i think its (XM072)
Jesus!
Ye never beat the strength of the MK3 coaches ;)
I was on it that morning. Those things are tough. They came apart, then slammed back into one another,
on the embankment as they came to a halt. None of them crumpled. But, about 200 yards down the track there was a 10 foot drop into a field, so we were lucky it happened there.
@@WolfsH0okCompared to 1950’s and earlier coaches 1960’s onwards coaches are stronger and safer. Pity the builder of the MK3’s BREL was closed in 1989.
Oh my god What Happened
A broken fishplate was apparently the cause of the derailment.
in ireland
into the next generation
Balls in hand this is quite the funny video
i heard that this is when the government started listening and decided to rebuild the whole railway network
Indeed, as is often the case in this country it took a major accident to finally convince some people that action was needed.
and in those days most railway lines out of dublin were in simular condition to the athenry to tuam line today and were running passenger train's on them. i remember when the bulk cement trains ran past my house in ennis on there way to athenry. the speeds of those trains was less than 5 miles per hour in some area's. this was in the mid 90s and as you probably know the line was only rebuilt in 2010
That's right, I often remember throughout much of the early to mid-90s down here in Kilkenny a lot of the jointed track sections being in a very poor state with rotting sleepers and loose or missing bolts on fishplates and railshoes yet linespeeds were still in the region of 70 - 80mph! The majority of the network was crying out for investment long before the Knockcroghery incident it has to be said.
i remember going on one of my many visits to france. the area which i was staying had 2 railway lines one was abandoned and was in simular state to some of the active lines in ireland. i remember asking around and found out that local laws in france state that if a track gets under a certain condition the line has to be closed for upgrading work. 1 reason for this was as stated. safety. if the rail jolts for any reason while a train is on it it WILL DERAIL THE WHOLE TRAIN!! thankfully irish railway safety is something to be proud of these days. one thing i would like to see arrive in ireland is weight sencered level crossings eliminating cctv. it works when a train is a certain distance from the level crossing a computer calculates the speed and length of the train and activates the crossing 2 minutes before the train arrives and raises the barriers once the same weight has already passed over the crossing
We have indeed an excellent safety record, there hasn't been a passenger fatality in near 25 years on the network. The CCTV enabled crossings do need looking into though with the delays that are experienced in waiting for trains to pass. I know of 2 crossings where there's a wait of up to 8 mins from the barriers dropping to the train passing. This is now leading to people rushing through the crossings trying to beat the barriers! Here's such an example:
ruclips.net/video/xy292ZwkRoo/видео.html
Woah how did that happen?
Apparently a fishplate broke on the jointed track due to the trackbed sinking.
Realy i do know alot about trains but whats a fishplate
It's simply a piece of metal that joins two lengths of rail together: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishplate
With the trackbed sinking this put stress on it and caused it to snap.
Oh i just didnt reconize the name
You don't hear much about them nowadays with all the welded rail that's around!
The dodge ram fire truck still exist today
to make IRL great
Hang on, who disliked this...
Some member of the PW staff no doubt!
Or Dick Fearn...
lol quite possibly!
The new man, whatdoyoucallhim, has the right idea about how to run a railway though.
I'll give Mr Franks a bit more time in the hotseat to see if his ideas come to fruition. You often get a lot of talk when someone new arrives and nothing becomes of it.
00:22 crosseeeeeeeeeeng
people die then things change
So u decided to steal this footage typical danno