Updated 11.27am
A RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE company has been fined £3m (€3.4m) for breaching safety regulations. The award has been made in relation to the Potters Bar train crash in the UK in which seven people died in May 2002.
The BBC reports that Network Rail admitted breaching safety regulations which led to the crashing of a London to King’s Lynn express train. Around seventy people were injured in the incident. Of the seven people who were killed, one was a pedestrian who just happened to be walking near the Potters Bar station at the time of the crash.
Some of the charges levelled against Network Rail – and also at maintenance firm Jarvis – were that there were “failings in the installation, maintenance and inspection of adjustable stretcher bars which keep the moveable section of the points at the correct width for train wheels”. It was reported by the Guardian earlier this year that the rail regulator in the UK dropped criminal proceedings against Jarvis.
Network Rail said today that it was “truly sorry”.
However, some of the relatives of the crash victims were angry after today’s ruling saying that the fine would essentially be paid by the taxpayer as Network Rail has its debts guaranteed by the British government.
The original company in charge of rail infrastructure, Railtrack, was held mainly to blame for the safety breaches that caused the crash. The London Independent reported that Railtrack was to offer £18m in compensation to the victims of the crash even before the final conclusions of the safety report were made. Railtrack had actually gone into administration in 2002 after it had to pay compensation to the victims of the Hatfield rail crash in 2000. Four were killed and around 70 injured in that incident.
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