Salisbury train crash: clearance of leaves delayed by engineering work

Accident inspectors found many areas around site had a medium or heavy level of contamination'

Engineering work delayed the cleaning of rails in Salisbury last October, less than two hours before a passenger train skidded on leaves stuck to the line and crashed, injuring 14, investigators have found.

The routine autumn cleaning work had been rescheduled from 5pm to 11pm the same evening but at 6.43pm a South Western Railway train was unable to stop on the slippery tracks and collided with a Great Western Railway service outside a tunnel near Salisbury, Wiltshire.