Rail company facing massive fine over train crash failings

The rail infrastructure company has admitted breaching health and safety regulations in the May 2002 Hertfordshire disaster, which claimed seven lives.

Six passengers were killed along with one pedestrian and 70 others injured in the May 2002 disaster when a high-speed train derailed at a faulty set of points outside Potters Bar station in Hertfordshire.

The West Anglia Great Northern express train travelling from London to King’s Lynn in Norfolk derailed at 95-100mph and a section of train ended up wedged under the canopy of the station, having knocked debris off a bridge into the street, killing 80-year-old pedestrian Agnes Quinlivan.

At an earlier court hearing, Network Rail (NR) admitted 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. NR’s predecessor company Railtrack was the infrastructure company in charge at the time of the crash but NR has shouldered the responsibility.

The devastating effect the deaths of the victims of the Potters Bar rail crash had on the lives of their families was described at the start of the sentencing hearing at St Albans Crown Court in Hertfordshire yesterday.

Judge Andrew Bright QC was told of the families’ plight by Nicholas Hilliard QC, appearing for the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) which brought the case against Network Rail.

The now-in-administration maintenance company, Jarvis, which was responsible for the section of track, also faced prosecution but the ORR decided in March not to proceed as the prosecution was “no longer in the public interest”.

The hearing was adjourned yesterday, with the judge saying he would pass sentence this morning.