Buttevant Rail Disaster
 Location within Ireland
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| Date | 1 August 1980 |
|---|---|
| Time | 12:45 |
| Location | Buttevant |
| Coordinates | 52°13′59″N 8°40′01″W / 52.2331°N 8.6669°WCoordinates: 52°13′59″N 8°40′01″W / 52.2331°N 8.6669°W |
| Country | Republic of Ireland |
| Rail line | Dublin–Cork railway line |
| Operator | Iarnród Éireann |
| Cause | Express sent into sidings as points not interlocked |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Passengers | ~230 |
| Deaths | 18 |
| Injuries | 70+ |
| Irish railway accidents | |
The Buttevant Rail Disaster was a train crash that occurred at Buttevant Railway Station, County Cork in the Republic of Ireland, 137 miles from Heuston Station on the Dublin to Cork mainline, on 1 August 1980. At 12:45 the 10:00 am Dublin (Heuston) to Cork (Kent) express train entered Buttevant station carrying some 230 bank holiday passengers. The train was diverted off the main line across a 1:8 temporary set of points into a siding. The locomotive remained upright but carriages immediately behind the engine and generator van jack-knifed and were thrown across four sets of rail line. Two coaches and the dining car were totally demolished by the impact. It resulted in the deaths of 18 people and over 70 people being injured.
The accident happened because a set of facing points, operated by hand, were set to direct the train into the siding. These points were installed about four months previously and had not been connected to the signal cabin. The permanent way maintenance staff were expecting a stationary locomotive at the Up platform to move into the siding and had set the points as such, without obtaining permission from the signalman. Upon witnessing this, the signalman at Buttevant manually set the signals to the Danger aspect and informed the pointsman to reset the points but the train was travelling too fast to stop in time. The derailment occurred at around 60 mph (97 km/h).
The train consisted of 071 Class locomotive number 075, a generator van and 11 coaches. Six of the coaches consisted of wooden bodies on steel underframes. Four of these were either destroyed or badly damaged in the impact, the two which survived were at the rear of the train. The remainder of the coaches were light alloy stock; most of which survived the crash. The generator van, a modified BR Mark 1, was severely damaged. All of the vehicles were coupled using screw shackle couplings.
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