The Selby rail crash was a "wholly exceptional" accident and there was nothing the rail industry could have done to prevent it, an official interim accident report said yesterday.
The goods train driver, going at more than 50 m.p.h., would have had no time to avoid the London-bound GNER express, the report from the Health and Safety Executive said.
And the express, travelling at around 125 m.p.h., would have had no time to react to the trailer-hauling Land Rover that had come off the M62 and on to the track at the village of Great Heck, North Yorkshire.
Ten people - including the driver of the express train and one of the two drivers of the coal-carrying train - died in the accident at around 6.14 a.m. last Wednesday.
The HSE's chief inspector of railways, Mr Vic Coleman, said: "The evidence so far suggests that the events which led to this catastrophe were beyond the control of the railway industry."
The combined speed of the two trains - estimated at about 140 m.p.h. - was one of the highest recorded. Nevertheless, the specially-designed Mark IV coaches on the express train had "generally stood up to the collision very well".