NETWORK RAIL has been fined £3million and been forced to pay legal costs of £150,000 following the Potters Bar rail disaster.
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| AVOIDABLE: Seven died after the tragic crash in May 2002 |
Seven people, six passengers and one individual walking along the platform were killed when a lunchtime service from London to Kings Lynn crashed into the Potters Bar station in Hertfordshire. The decision to fine Network Rail, taken on Friday at St. Albans Crown Court, ends the fight for justice for the families, who have waited nine years to gain some form of justice.
At the hearing, Judge Andrew Bright described the accident as ‘catastrophic’ and the problems with faulty points at Potters Bar ‘could and should have been spotted sooner,’ before the tragic accident occurred on May 10, 2002. Network Rail, who deal with the public railway system nowadays, have accepted the fine and apologised again to those who lost relatives and friends in the crash.
Railtrack, which ran the railways at the time of the Potters Bar rail disaster were seen by many to be responsible for the accident. The judge said that the running of the railways at the time, which had seen accident at Southall, Paddington and Hatfield in quick succession before Potters Bars that Railtrack’s procedures were ‘seriously inadequate.’ Also held accountable was maintenance company Jarvis. Jarvis, now in administration, were responsible for the faulty point lines at Potters Bar. In March, the Office of Rail Regulation, which bought about this prosecution against Network Rail decide to drop charges against Jarvis, as they felt it was out of the public interest.
After Friday’s hearing, Ian Prosser, director of rail safety for the ORR made a statement to reporters. He said; “Safety on Britain’s railways has improved significantly over the last nine years and statistics show we have on of the safest railways in Europe. However, there can be no room for complacency and the safety culture of the rail industry can be significantly strengthened.”
The recklessness of the Railtrack years seems to be a thing of the past. Since Potters Bar, Network Rail, which is a private limited company, but gets most of its funds through public spending have taken great strides in improving the railway system. That is something the families affected by Potters Bar have been happy to accept. Unfortunately, it came at the cost of seven people’s innocent lives, in a tragedy as proven by Friday’s verdict, as an avoidable accident.
