The goods train which crashed into a 125mph passenger express in the Selby rail disaster was running 20 minutes early, an official interim report into the accident revealed today.
But its early departure was within the rules and its driver had no chance of avoiding the collision with the London-bound GNER train.
Similarly, the GNER driver - one of 10 people killed in the crash - could not have avoided the Land Rover which had come on to the tracks after leaving the M62, the report from the Health and Safety Executive said.
Just 60 seconds elapsed between the time the trailer-hauling Land Rover driver, Mr Gary Hart, telephoned a warning to police and the time the two trains collided on the East Coast main line, the report said.
After hitting the Land Rover, the express derailed but stayed upright for about 700 metros until it hit a set of points which further deflected it into the path of the coal-carrying goods train.
Describing the February 28th accident as "wholly exceptional", the HSE added: "There was nothing that the railway industry could reasonably have done to prevent the collisions."
Mr Hart, (36) from the Lincolnshire village of Strubby, was on his way to work in Wigan and was carrying a Renault car on his trailer for delivery to a friend.
The report today said British Transport Police and North Yorkshire Police were carrying out an investigation into "the manner in which the vehicle was driven, the health and condition of the driver, the condition of the vehicle and the extent to which the weather may have been a contributory factor to the Land Rover leaving the M62 carriageway".
PA