Rail regulator to prosecute over fatal Potters Bar crash

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) yesterday said it had started criminal proceedings against the two companies "for breaches of health and safety law which caused the Potters Bar derailment".

If found guilty both companies could face unlimited fines.

The prosecution follows the conclusion of the inquest this year into the deaths at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire where the jury returned seven verdicts of accidental death.

A first hearing has been scheduled for Watford Magistrates' Court on January 7.

The Potters Bar crash killed six people on a train from London to King's Lynn. A pedestrian also died.

A Health and Safety Executive report said poor maintenance led to the points failure that caused the derailment on May 10 2002.

At the time of the crash the company in charge of rail infrastructure was Railtrack whose responsibilities were taken over by Network Rail (NR) in October 2002. NR is facing a charge under a section of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.

The ORR said this was in regard to NR's "failure, as infrastructure controller for the national rail network, to provide and implement suitable and sufficient training, standards, procedures and guidance for the installation, maintenance and inspection of adjustable stretcher bars (part of the points)".

Jarvis Rail, the maintenance contractor for the Potters Bar area at the time of the crash, went into administration in March 2010.