Rail disaster firm broke health and safety laws

RAIL firm Thames Trains was facing unlimited fines yesterday after pleading guilty to breaking health and safety laws in the Paddington rail disaster.

Thirty-one people died and hundreds more were injured when a Thames commuter train went through a red light and ploughed into a First Great Western express at 8.09am on October 5, 1999.

The public inquiry into the crash at Ladbroke Grove, outside Paddington Station in west London, criticised Thames Trains for its “slack” safety culture in training drivers.

The firm pleaded guilty to two charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at London’s Bow Street Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

But the case, which was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive, was ruled to be too serious for the magistrates’ court and was sent to the Old Bailey for sentencing.

No individual members of Thames Trains are being prosecuted by the HSE but a Crown Court judge can impose unlimited fines on the company. In the first charge, it was alleged that Thames “failed to ensure as far as was reasonably practicable” the health and safety at work of its employees on the ill-fated 165 diesel train.

The second charge, which also mentioned shortcomings in “the training of drivers” as a factor, was that the company failed to ensure that passengers on the train were not “exposed to risks” to their health and safety.

Anthony Seys Llewellyn QC, appearing for Thames Trains, told the court the company pleaded guilty to both allegations. The Cullen public inquiry report into the crash listed a catalogue of management failures by Railtrack.

Railtrack had “lamentably failed” to act after previous cases of signals passed at danger in the Paddington area before the October 1999 collision, the report said.

Louise Christian, a solicitor who acted for those injured and bereaved by the crash, said the families were happy with the result but still wanted Railtrack to be held to account.