On 18 August 1999, at 5:06 pm AWST, a National Rail freight train and an Indian Pacific passenger train collided with each other at a crossing loop near Zanthus, Western Australia.
Incident
thumb|Derailed [[Indian Pacific carriages]]
On 18 August 1999 an eastbound freight train was waiting at the departure end of the crossing loop for a westbound Indian Pacific passenger train to pass through.
The second engineman was waiting at the control panel for the points for the opposing train to pass through. Out of habit he had the control panel box unlocked and opened. He pressed the button to operate the points at an inappropriate time, and the opposing train was diverted at a speed of about into the loop where it could not stop in time to avoid a head-on collision. The speed at the point of impact was 27 km/h. Great Southern Rail estimated the damage to the carriages to be of the $5 million, National Rail estimated the damage to NR class locomotives NR15 and NR51 at around $1 million.
Aftermath
Since the accident, the operation of the points at this and other crossing loops was altered so that the point indicator lights will not operate until the access process is completed, and this gives all trains time to stop at the red point indicator lights.
This accident happened because the points were not fully interlocked, and were merely a kind of power-assisted hand lever, with automatic normalisation.