Passengers have told of their terrifying experience as a runaway tram careered out of control down Snaefell mountain.
"An investigation is underway as a tram sustained brake failure after it left the summit terminus and hurtled across the Mountain Road at The Bungalow before the crew finally managed to stop it using the hand-operated fell brake.
Miraculously, no one was seriously hurt and no traffic was on the crossing at the time. It is only 16 months since an unmanned tram ran away from the summit and was destroyed when it came off the track.
Karen McLean, who was visiting the island from London with her husband Bruce and their three children aged seven, five and four, said: ’We were in plane crash mode.She said: ’It was like being in a plane going down. It was terrifying. The tram was out of control and we thought we would come off the rails and down the mountainside.'
’We thought this would be the end of us.
’We were in free fall. Passengers were being thrown about. My boys hit their heads on the side. You could see the terror in everybody’s faces.’
Vintage tram no.2 had left the Summit terminus at about 2.40pm on Friday.
It was full with, some 50 passengers on board. Karen, who was sitting at the front with her back to the driver, said it quickly became apparent it was going too fast.
She said: ’The brakes didn’t work from the outset. It was dangerously fast after a few metres from the top.’
She said halfway between the top and the Bungalow it was clear the tram was out of control and the driver, guard and a passenger who had been sitting in the guard’s cab were frantically trying to turn the wheel to apply the fell brake.
’They were being thrown about in the cabs. Thank goodness they didn’t lose their balance but hung on,’ she said.
Karen said having ’thundered’ through Bungalow station and crossing the main road, the tram finally stopped several hundred metres further on.
She said the driver and guard were both shaken. No official met the passengers at Laxey afterwards, she said.
’I feel strongly that something needs to be done so it doesn’t happen again,’ she added.
Another passenger, Seth, was with his wife and one-year-old son.
He said: ’Very shortly after it left the station, the train started to rapidly accelerate. Within minutes it felt dangerously fast.
’Then it ripped past a station where it was supposed to stop, my wife recalled seeing the petrified face of a man at the station. There was traffic on the road though I didn’t notice a near collision.
’The train was squealing and buckling as it clattered round bends. The car was collecting still more speed and by that point it was obvious that there was something terribly wrong. Some people behind us were freaking out, everyone was struggling to stay in their seats. Children were knocked about.
’The only thing we could do was hold on and protect my son’s head.
’I saw the driver bouncing around, fighting to stay on his feet. As the emergency brake was applied the train bucked violently, it felt like it was about to tip over but it didn’t and instead it rolled to a stop.
’The driver walked into the cabin. People clapped. It would be half an hour before they managed to get a second car to rescue us and in that time people started to rationalise what had happened and many started crying.’
Nick Douglas, who was visiting from Belfast with his wife Trisha, son Luke and five-year-old grandson Elijah, said he was still shaken.
Nick said: ’I’ve been on this tram dozens of times and it normally grinds down the mountain.
’About
halfway between the summit and the Bungalow it started accelarating
violently. It really took off very quickly. The driver was wrestling
with the brake. ’You could see by his look of terror that he didn’t
think this was working well. The conductor was doing the same at the
other end.
’It
was jumping up and down and from side to side. We were repeatedly
thrown out of our seats. It went straight through Bungalow - by sheer
luck there were no cars. By the grace of God we were saved that day.’
He
said he had been annoyed by reported comments from the director of
public transport Ian Longworth that there had been a ’momentary’
loss of power and the tram had only travelled six pole lengths -
about 200m - before coming to a halt and such incidents ’aren’t
really out of the ordinary’.
In
a statement, Mr Longworth said: ’A car descending Snaefell suffered
a loss of rheostatic braking.’The
rheostatic brakes depend on a continuous air and electricity supply.
It does from time to time cut out such as when the bow collected
loses contact with the overhead wire.’This
caused the crew to use the original 1895 fell brake and approaching
the Bungalow there is no fell rail due to the road crossing. Once
across, the fell brake was reapplied and the car was stopped.’The
passengers, driver and brakeman were OK and transferred to another
car to complete the journey.
’Our
engineers will check through the tram to make sure all systems are
correctly operating. I am also grateful that the crew followed the
correct procedures in stopping the tram using the 1895 original fell
brake system.’
Bernard
Warden of the Health and Safety at Work Inspectorate confirmed that
an investigation is under way. At this stage we have not had an
opportunity to speak to any of the passengers or transport operation
staff.’
He said anyone who wishes to contact him about the investigation can do so by emailing him at [email protected] “