Accidents
This page contains details of the main accidents recorded on the railway. The main source of accidents was the proliferation of ungated level crossings, which were specially dangerous in the dark. Warning signs were unlit. Health & Safety left a bit to be desired in those days!
- A fatal accident at Worle in 1903 left two ladies dead and four people injured when the train ran into a wagonette at the crossing. See report from the Weston-Super-Mare Gazette.
- On 26 June 1919 Isaac Marshall, a 34 year old farmer of Poplar Farm, Kingston Seymour, was driving a horse and cart across a path known as ‘No Man’s Land’ next to Kingston Road, accompanied by a female land worker when they were struck by the last train from Weston. The cart was smashed to pieces and Marshall was killed instantly and the land-worker sustained a broken arm. The horse died of its injuries. At the inquest an open verdict was returned.
- The small Drewry Railcar was struck by a Bristol Tramways coach on the Bristol Road crossing on 19 March 1932. Four people in the coach and two in the railcar were hurt.
- A small bridge over a rhyne collapsed under the weight of Hesperus on 5 April 1934 on the line to the jetty. There were no fatalities and the engine wasn’t badly damaged.
- The small Railcar collided with a brewer’s van on the Locking Road crossing in Septemeber 1937. It is believed there were no serious injuries.
- A lorry struck a Railcar in October 1937 at the ungated Worle crossing. A passenger was fatally injured.
- On 7 September 1938 the 2 pm train from Clevedon to Weston, consisting of four coaches and an engine running bunker-first (No 4?) was in collision with a motorbike ridden by two young men from Weston-Super-Mare at the ungated Worle crossing. The motorbike was travelling at 20 to 30 mph, and the driver had his head turned away from the direction of the oncoming train as if talking to his pillion-passenger, and was probably unaware of the danger. Both men were killed. A bus-driver who was cycling to work stopped to render first aid tragically discovered that one of the victims was his son. See Christopher Redwood’s book.
- There were also a number of minor derailments and several cases of cattle or horses being killed.
This subject is still being researched. More details to follow - watch this space.
