The Staplehurst rail crash was a derailment at Staplehurst, Kent, on 9 June 1865 at 3:13 pm. The South Eastern Railway Folkestone to London boat train derailed while crossing a viaduct where a length of track had been removed during engineering works, killing ten passengers and injuring forty. In the Board of Trade report it was found that a man had been placed with a red flag away but the regulations required him to be away and the train had insufficient time to stop. Charles Dickens was travelling with Ellen Ternan and her mother on the train; they all survived the derailment. He tended the victims, some of whom died while he was with them. The experience affected Dickens greatly; he lost his voice for two weeks and afterwards was nervous when travelling by train, using alternative means when available. Dickens died five years to the day after the accident; his son said that he had never fully recovered. Derailment On 9 June 1865 the daily boat train to London left Folkestone between 2:36 pm and 2:39 pm, having taken on board passengers from the tidal cross-channel ferry from France. Tender locomotive No. 199 hauled the train comprising a brake van, a second-class carriage, seven first-class carriages, two second-class carriages and three brake vans, carrying a total of eighty first-class and thirty-five second-class passengers. Three of the brake vans were staffed with guards, with whom the driver was able to communicate using a whistle on the engine. Just after the train passed Headcorn railway station at , the driver saw a red flag. He whistled for the brakes and reversed his engine, but the locomotive and brakesmen only managed to slow the train to around before it derailed at 3:13 pm crossing the Beult viaduct, where a length of track had been removed during engineering works. The high viaduct, with eight openings each wide, crossed over a river bed, mostly dry at the time of the accident. The locomotive, tender, van and leading second-class carriage made it across and remained coupled to the first-class carriage, the other end of which rested in the dry river bed. The next seven carriages ended up likewise in the muddy river bed; the last second-class carriage remained coupled to the trailing vans, the last two of which remained on the eastern bank. There were ten fatalities and 40 people injured; seven carriages were destroyed,