Which interesting fact about dickens life could most directly apply to the manner in which he constructed the plot in his story the signalman?

In 1869 on the 9th June, Dickens was involved in the staplehurst railway crash, Kent, England that killed 10 and injured 49.

Dickens was travelling on one of the front carrages that didnt compleatly tip. he was returning from a holiday to France with his companions Ellen Ternan and her mother.

The track was in the middle of being rennovated but the foreman hadn't expected the train to be comming until after the last two tracks had been replaced judging by the tide.

However even though they had put out a lookout to stop any train comming the train was travelling at 50mph when they told it to stop but hit the unfinished track at 30mph. The instructions given to the lookout were that he needed to be 1000 yards away from the unfinished track but was instead only 550.

It is belived that the psychological effects aswell as the anxiety from the crash lead him to an early death dying just 5years to the day after the crash.

This was said to be part of his inspiration for his great novel- The Signalman