ABSTRACT
On 5 October 1999 at 8.06 am, a light turbo commuter train travelling from London to Bedwyn (Wiltshire in the UK) collided with a high-speed train travelling in the opposite direction just three minutes after departing Paddington station. The collision occurred at a combined speed of 130 mph, killing both train drivers and 29 passengers and injuring over 400 passengers. Although there were many failures that contributed to the incident (Lawton and Ward 2005), one of the key issues explored in the subsequent inquiry (Cullen 2000) was why the signaller involved took 18 seconds to respond to the alarm advising him of an unauthorised track occupation. In his inquiry report, Lord Cullen criticised the time taken by the signaller to respond, whilst conceding that an earlier response would not have prevented the crash from occurring (Cullen 2000).
