Ballymacarrett rail crash

Fog choked Ballymacarrett on 10 January 1945 when a speeding railmotor smashed into the rear of a stopped passenger train, killing twenty-two people and breaking the bones of twenty-seven more. The driver followed a dangerous Stop and Proceed rule that let him ignore the occupied track ahead, driving straight through the mist into lightweight wooden coaches packed with commuters. That single act of carelessness ended the independent life of the Belfast and County Down Railway, forcing nationalisation three years later.