When Want and Aldington were sent to trial for manslaughter, neither attempted to excuse themselves because of the poor weather or lack of fogmen, but rather put emphasis on the fact that the distant signal was at clear. Aldington said when the mail train was approaching Charfield, he was standing behind Want who was keeping his eyes out for signals which both saw as green. Because of this, Aldington assumed the station was clear of traffic and could proceed through to Wickwar. However, error by Button was ruled out in the investigation, since Button's signals would not be able to change the down distant due to the GWR Train occupying the section. The only possibilities were that Aldington and Want did not see the down distant, or that they saw the signal, which had been somehow set to green. The only way the latter could occur was if something heavy weighed down the cables, or if they had been sabotaged. However, no traces of either were found and the mystery remains to this day.