Network Rail fined £3m for Potters Bar crash
Network Rail has been fined £3 million for safety failings over the 2002 Potters Bar train crash.
The rail infrastructure company Network Rail said it accepted the blame for the crash and admitted breaching safety regulations.
Faulty points were to blame for the May 2002 crash, in which an express train derailed outside Potters Bar station in Hertfordshire, killing seven people.
The judge told St Albans Crown Court that a faulty set of points made the “catastrophic” crash “inevitable”.
Despite not being in charge at the time of the crash, the not-for-profit Network Rail, which is largely funded by taxpayers, shouldered the responsibility for its predecessor company Railtrack.
“For every pound that I fine them, that’s a pound that is not going on rail safety.” Judge Andrew Bright
Judge Andrew Bright ordered Network rail to pay £150,000 costs, but said he was conscious that the punishment would have an impact on taxpayers.
“For every pound that I fine them, that’s a pound that is not going on rail safety.”
The now in-administration maintenance company Jarvis, which was responsible for the section of track at Potters Bar, also faced prosecution but the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) decided in March not to proceed as the prosecution was “no longer in the public interest”.
The judge told the court that Railtrack’s procedures and standards were “seriously inadequate”.
He added: “I do not doubt that those who lost loved ones in the crash might have hoped to see those individuals held to account for their failure.
“However, they are not before the court and it’s Network Rail Infrastructure who fall to be sentenced for an offence committed by Railtrack plc.”
“Directors of the two companies should have been in the dock as individuals and they should have paid out of their own purses. It’s offensive that I pay a fine for something that killed my father.” Perdita Kark, daughter of Austen Kark
A Network Rail spokesman apologised for the crash and accepted the blame.
“We have today been sentenced for failings that contributed to this accident and we accept the fine as we accept the liabilities inherited from Railtrack. We say again today that we are truly sorry.”
The spokesman went on: “Private contractors are no longer in control of the day-to-day maintenance of the nation’s rail infrastructure since NR took this entire operation in-house in 2004.
Six passengers- Austen Kark, Emma Knights, Jonael Schickler, Alexander Ogunwusi, Chia Hsin Lin and Chia Chin Wu- were killed when the West Anglia Great Northern express train derailed just outside Potters Bar station on May 10 2002.
Pedestrian Agnes Quinlivan, 80, was also killed when she was hit by debris from the accident.
Speaking after the court case today, Perdita Kark, the daughter of Austen Kark, said she wanted individuals prosecuted.
“Directors of the two companies should have been in the dock as individuals and they should have paid out of their own purses.
“It’s offensive that I pay a fine for something that killed my father,” she said.
Pat Smith, 63, the daughter of Mrs Quinlivan, said she hoped lessons had been learnt and the case would help to improve rail safety.
“We finally got our apology from NR yesterday. They should have put their hands up right away. That would have eased our pain.
“I just hope that other families in the future are not treated as shabbily as we were by the rail companies.”
The ORR brought the prosecution after the jury at the long-awaited inquest into the crash in July last year found that unsafe points caused the accident.