Network Rail fined £6.7m over fatal train crash in Scotland
Network Rail has been fined £6.7m after pleading guilty to health and safety failings over a train crash that claimed three lives.
The fine was originally going to be £10m, but was reduced by a third in recognition of the guilty plea.
Train driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died when the train derailed at Carmont, near Stonehaven in northeast Scotland, on 12 August 2020.
The morning ScotRail service from Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street derailed after it hit a landslide following heavy rain.
Of the nine people on board the 6.38am service, three were killed and six were injured after the train hit gravel and other debris that had washed onto the track.
Sentencing, Judge Lord Matthews said: “No penalty I can impose will come close to compensating those whose lives have been touched by this tragedy.
“The only disposal I have is a fine.”
He said very few people in the northeast of Scotland “will ever forget” the images of the derailed carriages.
On Thursday at the High Court in Aberdeen, Network Rail admitted a charge covering the period from May 1 2011 to August 12 2020.
It admitted it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practical, that railway workers not in its employment and members of the public travelling by train were not exposed to the “risk of serious injury and death from train derailment” as a result of failures in the construction, inspection and maintenance of drainage assets and in adverse and extreme weather planning.
The company also admitted it failed to impose an emergency speed restriction “in absence of current information about the integrity of the railway line and drainage assets between Montrose and Stonehaven”, and failed to inform the driver that it was unsafe to drive the train at a speed of 75mph or caution him to reduce his speed.
The court was told an investigation found if a drainage channel that overflowed on the day of the crash had been built correctly it would have been able to cope with the washout of gravel that led to the incident.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) found there had been no inspection of the drain following its completion and Network Rail failed to ensure it was built to the correct specification by Carillion, which was subcontracted to undertake the work more than a decade ago.
Carillion went into compulsory liquidation in January 2018.
Advocate depute Alex Prentice KC, prosecuting, told the court there had been severe weather resulting in disruption across the rail network in northeast Scotland on the day of the crash.
He said passengers affected by cancelled trains as a result of torrential rain described it as “biblical”, and both Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council had declared a major emergency due to the weather.
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Mr Prentice told the court that recordings of a conversation between Mr McCullough and the Carmont area signaller prior to the crash confirmed the train driver queried whether there was a reduced speed limit in place on the line to Stonehaven.
The signaller told Mr McCullough: “Eh no, everything’s fine between myself and Stonehaven.”
The court was told that when Mr McCullough pulled the emergency brake, there was “insufficient time” for it to have any impact on the train’s speed.
The crash happened shortly before 9.40am when the train was on its way back to Aberdeen.
The train hit the side of a bridge, causing its power car and one of its four carriages to fall down an embankment.
A workman saved a seven-year-old boy from a burning car in the aftermath of a deadly crash caused by a suicidal ex-pilot, an inquest has heard.
The schoolboy’s rescue came following the collision on the M6, which killed former RAF man Richard Woods and four others, in October last year.
Last week a coroner ruled that Woods, 40, took his own life by deliberately driving his Skoda the wrong way down the motorway while drunk and hitting a Toyota Yaris head-on.
The driver of the Toyota, Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, was also killed, along with his two sons, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33.
Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Ms McEnroe’s son was also in the car but survived after workman Gavin Walsh came to his rescue at the scene, which was near Tebay services in Cumbria.
In a statement to the inquest, Mr Walsh said he was a passenger in a transit van travelling to Scotland when he witnessed the crash.
He jumped out of the vehicle and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of the Toyota and pulled the boy out of the burning vehicle.
Mr Walsh said: “We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
“I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.”
He added that he has never stopped thinking about the boy, and said: “I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.”
At the time, the family were returning to Glasgow from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire.
The inquest heard that Wood, who was travelling at a speed of at least 65mph, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Recording conclusions of unlawful killing, Cumbria assistant coroner Margaret Taylor said: “I found that Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver.”
The inquest heard how Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, had served a distinguished 14-year career in the RAF and was a flight instructor for BAE Systems at the time of his death.
Jade McEnroe. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Dominic and Filip. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
In Ms Taylor’s record of inquest, Mr Woods was said to have been experiencing “a number of stressors in his life” and had a “history of harmful use of alcohol”.
Following the crash, he was found to be nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was found in his car.
On the day of his death, concerns had been raised over his behaviour at a work conference near Preston in Lancashire.
Mr Woods failed to return to his seat after lunch and was later spotted driving erratically and swerving across three northbound carriageway lanes on the M6.
After pulling onto the hard shoulder, he then proceeded to U-turn and drove southward on lane three.
Filip, Dominic and Jaroslaw Rossa. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, from Cumbria Police, told the inquest that Mr Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Ms McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was “murder”.
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A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic, and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had “lots of friends”, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she was “devastated” over the deaths, adding: “Our lives will never be the same.
“I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.”
Marie McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Jade had been a “brilliant mother” to her only child, was “really happy” with Mr Rossa and it was “lovely chaos” when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe added: “Life changed forever that day”.
Ms Taylor praised the “selfless acts of bravery” from those in the aftermath of the collision, including Mr Walsh, who she said went towards the burning car “without hesitation for his own safety”.
The coroner added: “Without his swift response, Jade’s child would also have perished.”
Addressing the bereaved family members, she said: “Your loss is unimaginable but you have conducted yourself with dignity and I thank you for that. I wish you strength for the future.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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