Network Rail fined £4m for Paddington rail crash
Updated on 30 March 2007
Network Rail fined £4m for the fatal Paddington rail crash almost eight years ago.
Families of victims of the Paddington rail disaster have called for new laws on corporate manslaughter, after Network Rail was fined £4 million for the 'systematic and unacceptable' safety failures which led to the crash.
The Paddington train crash
In 1999 a Thames Trains service collided with a First Great Western train at Ladbroke Grove, west London, killing 31 people. More than 400 people were injured.
The crash happened when the Thames train went through a red light at signal SN109 shortly after leaving Paddington Station.
An inquiry into the accident found that the signal was difficult to read in bright sunlight.
Lord Cullen concluded there had been a "lamentable failure" on the part of maintenance firm Railtrack. The company is thought to have neglected to respond to earlier safety warnings about that particular stretch of track.
31 people died when a local Thames train collided head-on with an express train heading for London in October 1999. This is the biggest fine Network Rail has ever been forced to pay - but survivors are angry that no senior managers have been personally held to account.
This was a crash, the judge said today, that was caused by "systemic and unacceptable failures" that stemmed from "incompetent management and inadequate process".
The immediate cause of the head-on collision: the driver of the Thames train passed signal SN109 at red.
He was killed in the crash, but his fatal error was because signal SN109 was badly sited and partly obscured by overhead wires; it had been passed at red eight times before.
Management at Railtrack, the privatised company then responsible for tracks and signalling, was well aware of the problem: they'd convened several committees to resolve it, but done nothing.
Network Rail - the successor to Railtrack - pleaded guilty to Health and Safety charges after corporate manslaughter charges were abandoned. Relatives of those killed acknowledge rail safety has improved, but they remain angry individuals have not been brought to account.
The case for corporate manslaughter charges
10 October 1999: - crash occurs
May 2000 - CPS: "Insufficient evidence" for manslaughter charge
October 2001 - CPS: Investigation closed
May 2002 - BTP: Operation Resolve re-opens manslaughter inquiries
July 2005 - Hatfield trial: manslaughter charges dropped
December 2005 - No corporate manslaughter charges to be bought
Corporate manslaughter has been the legal merry-go-round in this case.
Soon after the crash, the Crown Prosecution Service concluded there was "insufficient evidence" to charge any individal, or company, for manslaughter. A year later they closed their investigations, but after angry representations from the bereaved families.
British Transport Police re-opened inquiries. They were confident they had a case,
But after manslaughter charges were thrown out in the Hatfield train crash trial,
the CPS announced no corporate manslaughter charges would be brought over Paddington.
A new corporate manslaughter bill is currently before Parliament, which would apply to companies like Network Rail, but it's bogged down while ministers try to get exemption for deaths in prisons and police cells.
