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The crash occurred after the 1032 Great Western Intercity passenger train from Swansea to London Paddington , operating with a defective Automatic Warning System indicator, went through a red signal ( SPAD ) and collided with a freight train leaving its depot shortly before 13:20 local time. If the AWS equipment on the HST passenger train had been working, the chance of the accident occurring would have been substantially reduced, though not eliminated, since the AWS is only an advisory system. Automatic train protection equipment would have almost certainly prevented the accident. The train was fitted with ATP but this was also switched off. At the time of the accident, the ATP equipment was not required to be switched on and had proved troublesome in service. Following this accident and the Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash , the train operating company Great Western now requires all its HST trains to have ATP switched on (if the equipment is faulty the train is taken out of service). In hindsight, the action of the signalman in giving the freight train precedence over the HST with the faulty AWS has been criticised. However, this was a perfectly standard manoeuvre, and he would not have been aware that the HST AWS was faulty. One possible solution might have been to have defined a Train Headcode that indicates a faulty AWS, for example "AWSF", and instruct signalmen to treat such trains with extra care, including giving such trains priority. However, the key point, as identified in the report, was that drivers had become increasingly reliant on AWS with single-manning and high speeds, and that it was no longer acceptable to run trains at full speed if the equipment was inoperative. Operating rules were changed accordingly. EXTERNAL LINKS
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