Seconds from Disaster | 48 - Paddington Rail Disaster (2011)
October 5th 1999, a passenger train leaving London Paddington during the morning rush hour collides with an incoming train at a combined speed of 130 mph.
2011-09-19 22:00:00 - National Geographic
The impact, and an unprecedented 30-foot high fireball, that sweeps over the mangled carriages, kills 29 passengers and both drivers, and leaves hundreds injured and trapped in the twisted wreckage.
The original lead investigators recreate their analysis of how two trains came to be travelling towards each other on the same stretch of track, and why automatic warning systems and fully functioning brakes were not enough to prevent one of the worst rail accidents in British history.
Step by step reconstruction of the circumstances reveals a startling history of near misses that should have made one of the worst rail accidents in British history avoidable.