Firms fined over Hatfield rail crash

Two firms have been fined a combined total of £13.5 million over the Hatfield rail disaster, in which four people died.

The rail firm, Network Rail – formerly Railtrack – was fined £3.5 million, while engineering firm Balfour Beatty was fined £10 million.

Both companies were also ordered to pay £300,000 in costs.

Four people were killed and 102 injured in the crash, caused by a cracked section of the track, on October 17, 2000. The train, the London to Leeds express, came off the tracks at 115mph.

At the Old Bailey on Friday, Justice Mackay ruled that Balfour Beatty’s culpability was two to three times as much as that of Network Rail. He described their breaches of the Health and Safety Act as “one of the worst examples of sustained industrial negligence in a high risk industry I have ever seen.”

Earlier in the trial, the prosecution described the derailment as ‘an accident waiting to happen’. The cracked section of track had been identified for repair 21 months before the crash, but had not been fixed due to a backlog of work.

Balfour Beatty, which pleaded guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety Act, apologised for the crash.

Chairman of Network Rail Ian McAllister, said: “The Hatfield tragedy was a terrible event for everyone involved.”

However, he said that the rail industry had “changed enormously” in the last five years and said that maintenance had now been brought in-house and new technology introduced to ensure that that the chances of a similar accident happening again. Mr McAllister said that the firm’s approach had now been changed from ‘find and fix’ to ‘predict and prevent’.

The Safe Trains Action Group welcomed the court’s decision. Vice-Chairwoman Carol Bell said: “The size of these fines sends a message to companies that they must take full regard of safety.”

(KMcA/GB)