The accident occurred on the 18:20 passenger train from Glasgow Queen Street station to Oban which hit boulders on the line and derailed shortly before 21:00 BST (UTC+1).

A Major Incident Unit (MIU) from Clydebank and a Heavy Rescue Vehicle (HRV) from Easterhouse also attended the scene of the accident.

[8] Two air ambulances and a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter also attended the scene due to the remote location.

Nobody was found to be seriously hurt, although eight people were taken to hospitals in Oban, Lochgilphead and Glasgow as a precaution, with the most serious cases described as minor spinal injuries.

[2][8] The Scottish Environment Protection Agency despatched two officers to the accident site to give advice on anti-pollution measures.

Oil retention equipment was employed on Loch Awe and streams around the accident site to deal with any spilt diesel fuel from the carriages, which can carry 1,600 litres (350 imp gal) each.

[9] The MIU and HRV were stood down at 00:30 on 7 June, with other firefighters remaining on standby due to diesel leaking from a ruptured fuel tank on one of the carriages.

[2][10] On 8 June 2010, it reported that removing the train would take "days" leaving the A85 closed, and no firm date was set for the reopening of the line.

[14] The RMT Union reissued a demand that ScotRail scrap plans for the introduction of driver-only operated trains on the Airdrie–Bathgate rail link when it opened.

The A85 at Falls of Cruachan was in effect on a bridge along the shore of Loch Awe and the engineers were looking at a number of methods to alleviate the problems with using such a large vehicle on the road.

The majority of incidents occur in summer and autumn, usually originated by sheep scrabbling on the slopes setting small stones rolling which then disturb larger ones.

[19] Along with other methods of rockfall risk reduction in the area, in the particular stretch of line from Loch Awe to Falls of Cruachan to Taynuilt, Network Rail also maintains the Pass of Brander stone signals.

It sets one pair of a series of seventeen semaphore signals to 'danger' should rocks from the slopes of Ben Cruachan break a screen of ten thin wires horizontally strung 9 to 10 inches (23 to 25 cm) apart.

[21] Network Rail confirmed on 8 June however that the Pass of Brander signals would not have prevented the 2010 derailment, as the rocks fell from a position about 20 feet (6.10 m) below the wire screen, falling for about 50 feet (15.24 m) before landing on the track, a distance which was not considered to represent a sufficient landslide risk to be covered by the wires.

[21] It was first installed in 1882 by the Callander and Oban Railway, following a derailment caused by falling rocks when a moving boulder actually struck a train, on 17 August 1881, a year after the line opened.

[23] On 11 June, Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT union, wrote to Network Rail criticising them for not implementing safety recommendations after a total of five previous derailments at Falls of Cruachan.