Anniversary of Hatfield rail crash to be marked

A service will be held at St Etheldreda's Church in the Hertfordshire town, after which relatives of those killed in the crash will be taken to the scene of the derailment.

Then, at a point south of Hatfield station, another service will be held starting at 12.23pm – exactly 10 years after the October 17 2000 crash.

The four people who died were on a Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) express train from London to Leeds. The train, travelling at more than 100mph, derailed after passing over a section of rail which then fractured.

Twelve GNER staff and 170 passengers were on the Intercity 225 service. As well as the deaths, there were 70 injuries, four of them serious.

A phenomenon known as gauge corner cracking, or rolling contact fatigue, was blamed for the crash.

Network Rail's predecessor company, Railtrack, introduced hundreds of speed restrictions on the railways while tracks were checked for cracking.

Official inquiries into the derailment showed that, north of the crash position, the rail had fractured into more than 300 pieces. The Health and Safety Executive said the train had passed over a section of track which was in a poor condition and which should have either have been replaced or a temporary speed restriction should have been brought in.

Manslaughter charges against Railtrack and the maintenance company involved, Balfour Beatty, and also against six individuals were dropped but, in 2005, after an eight-month Old Bailey trial, Balfour Beatty was fined 10m for breaching health and safety regulations.

Network Rail, which took over from Railtrack in 2002, was fined 3.5m for the same offences.