Hull Paragon rail accident

The Hull Paragon Rail accident was a rail crash that took place at Hull Paragon railway station.

On 14 February 1927, on the approaches to Hull Paragon station, the incoming 08:22 from Withernsea to Hull collided head-on with the 09:05 from Hull to Scarborough. Twelve passengers were killed and 24 were seriously injured. This happened despite the tracks having the latest safety features available at the time: a system of interlocking should have made it impossible to give clear signals to trains unless the route to be used is proved to be safe.

Three signalmen were present in the signalbox, the enquiry found that one of them had pulled the wrong lever; he had intended to set the points for the incoming train but instead set the points ahead of the Scarborough. Locking bars should have prevented these points from being changed as the signal ahead of the Scarborough was set to clear. Unfortunately one of the other signalmen was setting the signals behind the Scarborough train to danger, in contravention of the rules this was done whilst the train was still passing. This therefore disengaged the locking bar on the points for a few seconds before the Scarborough train reached it, allowing them to be changed by the application of the wrong lever. A combination of these two failings led to the disaster.