The fatal Stonehaven crash site looked like a “Hornby train set thrown up in the air” the Transport Secretary said today.
Grant Shapps was being questioned at the House of Commons about the rail industry when he made the comparison.
The tragedy was raised by Labour who asked about privatisation and the UK suppliers in the industry.
Driver Brett McCullough, conductor Donald Dinnie and passenger Christopher Stuchbury were killed when a Scotrail service came off the tracks following heavy rain on August 12.
Network Rail said the train hit a pile of “washed-out rock and gravel before derailing.”
Mr Shapps said: “I went to the scene of the tragedy.
“I was taken over in a helicopter. It was like a Hornby train set thrown up in the air.
“And our thoughts and prayers are with, not just the three who died, but those who were injured and the emergency workers and the brave people who rescued them.
“Our thoughts are with them all.
“The House will have noticed that I issued the Network Rail interim report on Stonehaven a week or two back which comes to some very important interim conclusions and I’ll update the House further with the full report shortly.”
Kevin Lindsay, ASLEF’s organiser in Scotland, has hit back at Grant Shapps’ comments, he said: “It is unfortunate in the extreme that the Secretary of State for Transport should make such a glib remark.
“This was a real accident, involving real people – three of whom died, and six of whom were injured – and a real train.
“It was not a Hornby model train set thrown up in the air in a Tory government minister’s playroom.
“Mr Shapps really should think more carefully about what he says and how he says it.
“Because he is treading on the feelings of the families and friends and colleagues of those who died.”
