An enthusiasts’ group has called for police to investigate the runaway tram incident.

The Manx Electric Railway Society has hailed as ’heroes’ the crewmen on the Snaefell Mountain Railway tram who battled to apply the manual fell brake and bring the car to a halt after power failure resulted in the loss of the main brake.

But it has launched a stinging attack on the management.

In a statement, it said: ’Instead of those in charge simply congratulating themselves for a "near miss" we call for a police investigation of what has happened in the recent incident.

’Had a loaded bus suffered a catastrophic brake failure causing it to hurtle down Minorca Hill there would have been a police investigation. Had this tram left the rails and tragedy occurred there would have been a police manslaughter investigation.

’This tram crossed the Mountain Road at speed, at right angles to the traffic - we know from survivors’ accounts there was traffic on the road. This was a dangerous incident in which the lives of the travelling public were threatened and people were put in terror.

’This involved a serious road traffic incident on a public road and should be properly investigated.’

The MER Society said it believed there is nothing inherently wrong with the trams’ braking systems.

But it argued the equipment and system of operation should be investigated by an organisation independent of the Manx government.

It said the rheostatic braking fitted in the 1970s appears to have worked well until recent times.

But it claimed there had been an increase in the use of the original fell brake in recent years and was aware of ’a number of occasions when the fell brake has had to be employed in an emergency’.

It added: ’Something seems to have changed and the secrecy of the line’s management effectively prevents us from knowing what the underlying causes are.

’There should be a full and open debate about what has happened and the department should come clean about the number of incidents known to have occurred involving the brakes and the steps it has taken to resolve the situation.’