Hatfield rail crash
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The Hatfield rail crash was a railway accident that occurred on 17 October 2000, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK. Although the accident had a low death toll in comparison to other railway incidents in British history, Hatfield's historical significance has become much greater, since it exposed the major stewardship shortcomings of the national railway infrastructure company Railtrack and the failings of the regulatory oversight which the company had had in its initial years - principally a failure to ensure that the company had a sound knowledge of the condition of its assets - and ultimately triggered its partial renationalisation.
A Great North Eastern Railway InterCity 225 train bound for Leeds had left London King's Cross at 1210 local time. It was travelling at over 115mph, when it suddenly derailed south of Hatfield station at around 1224. Four people were killed and a further seventy injured. Those who died were:
- Robert James Alcorn, 37, of Auckland, New Zealand
- Steve Arthur, 46, from Pease Pottage, West Sussex
- Leslie Gray, 43, of Tuxford, Nottingham
- Peter Monkhouse, 50, of Headingley, Leeds
A preliminary investigation found that a rail had fragmented while the train had passed over it, and that the likely cause was "gauge corner cracking" (microscopic cracks in the rails). This led to temporary speed restrictions being imposed on huge lengths of Britain's railways, effectively crippling many routes, while checks were carried out on the rails. It was found that the incidence of cracks similar to those that caused the rail failure at Hatfield was alarmingly high throughout the country's railway lines.
The rail infrastructure company Railtrack, having divested much of the engineering knowledge of British Rail into the maintenance contractors also had inadequate maintenance records and no coherent and accessible asset register. It did not therefore know how many of the other instances of gauge corner cracking around the network were capable of propagating another Hatfield-esque accident. In panic, Railtrack imposed over 1200 emergency speed restructions across its network and instigated a nationwide (and extremely costly) track replacement programme, and was subject to enforcement action by the Rail Regulator Tom Winsor. The consequent severe operational disruption to the national network and the company's spiralling costs set in motion the series of events which resulted in the ultimate collapse of the company into railway administration at the instance of transport secretary Stephen Byers MP (in highly controversial circumstances), and its replacement by the not-for-dividend company Network Rail under the supervision of Byers' successor Alistair Darling MP.
[edit] Court case
In 2003 six people and two companies – Network Rail (as successors of Railtrack) and the division of Balfour Beatty that maintained the track – were charged with manslaughter in connection with the accident (see corporate manslaughter). Charges against Network Rail/Railtrack and some of its executives were dropped in September 2004, but the other charges still stood. The trial began in January 2005; the judge, Mr Justice Mackay, warned that it could take as long as a year. On 14 July the judge instructed the jury to acquit all the defendants on the charges of manslaughter. A few days later Balfour Beatty changed its plea to guilty on the health and safety charges, and on 6 September Network Rail was found guilty of breaching health and safety law. All of the executives who had been charged were acquitted.
A key issue which the court considered was the extent to which the poor condition of the rail was known in advance, and to consider any acts or failures to act that resulted.
- Anthony Walker (Balfour Beatty's rail maintenance director) and Nicholas Jeffries (its civil engineer), denied manslaughter.
- Railtrack's Alistair Cook and Sean Fugill (both asset managers for the London North-East zone), and track engineer Keith Lee, also denied manslaughter.
- All five men, along with four others, are also accused of breaches of health and safety laws.
- Balfour Beatty denied charges of manslaughter which because it was alleged that Nicholas Jeffries was sufficiently senior that his acts were the omissions of the company
- Network Rail denied charges under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
