Cowden rail crash

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The Cowden rail crash occurred on 15 October 1994, near Cowden Station in Kent (UK), when two trains collided head-on, killing five and injuring 13, after one of them had passed a signal at danger and entered a single-line section. The principal cause was driver error. Possible contributory factors were; the signal was dirty and the light intensity was low, a guard who was in the cab against regulations potentially distracting the driver, lack of in-cab radio, patchy mist and fog, and there were no trap points to prevent a train wrongly entering a section against the signal.