Pendolino safety design limits the casualties in a Virgin
train derailment.

Alstoms thoughts are with the family and friends of
the passenger who sadly died in hospital and with those injured
in the incident.

All 9 carriages left the track, some of them dropped about
10 metres to the side of the track. However, they all
maintained their integrity , with very little distortion. None
of the windows has been broken.  Rail experts and Virgin
all attribute the relatively low number of casualties to the
excellence of design and build of the train. First
investigations, finalised on 26 February, show that there are
no faults linked to the train and that the track infrastructure
(set of points) is likely to blame. Further investigations are
going on.

The train is one of 53 Pendolinos built by Alstom for
Virgin's West Coast Main Line service, which runs between
London and Glasgow in Scotland. The trains have been designed
and built in the Italian, Swiss and British facilities of the
company. Alstom also maintains the trains at depots along the
WCML and has a rigorous safety check regime.