Cowden rail crash

The Cowden rail crash occurred on 15 October 1994, around 400 yards southeast of Cowden Station in the English county of Kent. There was a head-on collision between two trains in heavy fog after a northbound train passed a signal at danger without authority and entered a single line section.

Five people were killed and thirteen were injured. The guard of the northbound train, Jonathan Brett-Andrews, had ambitions to become a driver and was in the driver's cab at the time of the collision; this was in breach of the operating rules. It is thought that his presence may have contributed to the accident and there were even suspicions that he might have been at the controls; he had been reprimanded twice before for driving trains when he should not have. Both he and the driver were killed in the collision, and the front ends of both trains were so badly damaged that it was not possible to ascertain the exact positions of the crew in the northbound train at the point of impact. Two passengers – a couple travelling in the leading coach of the northbound train – were also killed.

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