Nocton rail accident

The Nocton rail accident was a rail accident that happened on 28 February 2002 after a vehicle smashed through a wall and fell onto the tracks. The driver, who was trapped in his van, was talking to emergency services on his mobile phone when he was killed by a two-carriage Sprinter train (156409). The front carriage of the train was derailed, remaining upright. 14 occupants of the train were injured. The incident happened exactly a year to the day after the similar Great Heck rail crash.

Details

John Fletcher, a 47-year-old delivery driver, was driving a white Mercedes van along the B1188 Sleaford road when he turned off along a disused road near Nocton, Lincolnshire. The road formerly led towards a bridge over a railway line; this bridge had been removed in 1968 and the approach to the line blocked by a brick wall. After travelling 20 metres (66 ft) along the road Fletcher's van smashed through the wall and fell 7 metres (23 ft) onto the railway, trapping him inside the vehicle. At 18:30, as Fletcher was talking on his mobile phone to an emergency services operator, the 15:42 service from Birmingham New Street station to Sleaford via Lincoln, a two-carriage Sprinter train (156409), impacted his van and shunted it 40 metres (130 ft) along the tracks. According to a police statement the van disintegrated into "1,000 pieces if not more". Fletcher died of multiple injuries. The front carriage of the train was derailed, remaining upright. Fourteen of the train's forty-one occupants, including the driver, were taken to Lincoln County Hospital with minor injuries.

References

• 'Nocton crash was unstoppable say police'
• 'Wreckage removed after train crash'
• 'Van driver was calling 999'