No manslaughter charges over Paddington crash

Manslaughter charges will not be brought over the Paddington rail crash in which 31 passengers died and 400 were injured.

Lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said yesterday that an "overarching problem in the law" meant that it was impossible to identify anyone employed by Railtrack or Thames Trains who could be held responsible for the deaths even though there was "a history of corporate failings".

The CPS concluded that it was impossible to say why the Thames Trains driver went through a red light before colliding with a London-bound Great Western express in October 1999.

Railtrack should also escape prosecution, the CPS advised the British Transport Police yesterday, because all safety issues on signalling were discussed as "committee matters", making it impossible to find an individual responsible for the errors.

Under current law it is necessary to find a "controlling mind" before manslaughter charges can be brought against a director or a company. This has proved a stumbling block when considering prosecutions.

However, the families of those killed said the CPS had got the law wrong and promised to mount a challenge in the High Court against the decision not to prosecute.

Louise Christian, the solicitor acting for the bereaved families, said a recent court judgment had made it possible to prosecute for manslaughter if a manager could be identified as being responsible for an "unsafe system" and had failed to do anything about it.

"Just because senior managers were not involved in the committee meetings did not mean they were not responsible," she said. "It is now a case that if the reasonable man on the Clapham omnibus thinks they are responsible for safety then they can be identified as the 'controlling mind'."

The official report into the tragedy by Lord Cullen made it clear that the driver who passed a red light was not the primary cause of the collision and that senior management was guilty of "serious and persistent failure". The CPS, which had advised against a criminal prosecution for manslaughter, agreed to review its decision in light of Lord Cullen's findings. In a statement released yesterday, the CPS said it had received independent advice from two barristers, including a QC, and had considered evidence from the Cullen inquiry and the police "very carefully, entirely afresh and without any preconceptions".

It had concluded "that even if British Transport Police obtained the evidence given to the Cullen inquiry in a form admissible in a criminal court, that evidence, alone or added to other evidence the [police] had obtained, would not be enough to bring proceedings against any person or company for manslaughter".

However, both Railtrack, currently in administration, and Thames Trains could face prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The Government has repeatedly said it intends to tighten the law of corporate manslaughter so that guilty directors can be more easily identified. But a Home Office spokeswoman said no firm timetable had been set for introducing any of its proposals.

Following the 1997 Southall rail crash, which claimed seven lives, the Great Western rail company was fined a record £1.5 million after being prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive. But prosecutions for manslaughter against both Great Western and its driver, Larry Harrison, failed.

*Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Transport, confirmed the appointment of Richard Bowker as the new chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority yesterday. The 35-year-old co-chairman of Virgin Rail will "lead the modernisation of Britain's rail network", Mr Byers said.

The appointment of Mr Bowker, who replaces Sir Alastair Morton in the £500,000-a-year job, is expected to provoke concern among other rail operating companies which had presumed the job would go to a civil servant.