Rail chiefs admit safety failings over train crash in which seven died

Track and station owner Network Rail told a court it will plead guilty to breaching regulations over the condition of tracks at the disaster site.

Six passengers and a pedestrian died when a West Anglia Great Northern express train travelling from London to King’s Lynn derailed at a faulty set of points in Hertfordshire on May 10, 2002.

Network Rail will be sentenced at St Albans Crown Court next month for failings over the installation, maintenance and inspection of adjustable stretcher bars, which keep the moveable section of a track at the correct width for train wheels.

Speaking outside Watford Magistrates Court, a spokeswoman for the company said: “We have indicated a guilty plea as Network Rail took on all of Railtrack’s obligations, responsibilities and liabilities when it took over the company in October 2002, some five months after the accident.”

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) launched proceedings over breaches of health and safety law following the conclusion of an inquest into the disaster last year.

Six passengers – Austen Kark, Emma Knights, Jonael Schickler, Alexander Ogunwusi, Chia Hsin Lin and Chia Chin Wu – were killed in the crash in Hertfordshire on May 10, 2002.

The seventh victim, Agnes Quinlivan, was walking nearby and died after she was hit by debris.

More than 70 other people were injured when the 12.45pm King’s Cross to King’s Lynn train crashed as it reached Potters Bar station, where it was not due to stop, at around 1pm.