In all fairness Mark, Flawed proceedures came into play after the train ran out of fuel. The very fact that a loco had no fuel guage on an operating railway in 1983, carrying passengers, is endemic of bad engineering, bad practise and irresponsibilty on behalf of the operator. Regardless of the "rule book", if the loco had a fuel guage, the accident could have been avoided.The same kind of loco didn't even have head lights when it was delivered. CIE and its poor and naive engineering standards at a very basic level caused this accident. People died and nobody went to jail. Retrofitting of fuel guages happened afterwards.
Another factor in this accident was wooden bodied stock. CIE got many warnings in Buttevent and Clogh, Co. Wexford. The lack of investment lies at the door of Government. Therefore someone in Government should have done time. Overall, shortsighted investment in the 50s and lack of investment in the 60s and 70s, killed people on our railway. I don't care what anyone says, someone, somewhere should have done time for these accidents.
A modern day example is the Kentstown bus accident. Its being pushed all the way. But the question is will someone in BE do time for making a balls up of certain things or will the state take it out on the local garage that had responsibilty for servicing the buses?
The outcome of that case will bring much relevence to the carnage on our railway during a certain period./
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