Train firm bosses spared charges of manslaughter

Directors of Thames Trains will not be prosecuted for manslaughter over the Paddington rail disaster, but the company faces unlimited fines.

After a four-year investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said there are no grounds for action against the company's senior managers for gross negligence, paving the way for lesser health and safety charges.

However, British Transport Police are still considering whether to press for manslaughter charges against directors of Railtrack, the private company in charge of the network at the time of the crash on 5 October 1999.

Pending a final decision, rail inspectors at the Health and Safety Executive will delay an intended prosecution of Railtrack under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

The proceedings against Thames Trains, due to begin on 12 November at City of London magistrates' court, are the first prosecutions from the disaster in which 31 people died. Rail inspectors say the train operator failed in its "duty of care" topassengers and employees.

The company could face a massive fine following allegations during the public inquiry into the crash that the driver of the service involved may not have been thoroughly trained. The inquiry was told that drivers had to negotiate a highly complicated signalling system just outside the west London station.

The disaster happened when a Thames Train commuter service on its way out of Paddington station passed signal 109 at red and collided head on with a Great Western express heading for London.

In October 2001 the CPS advised police to abandon their investigations into the accident saying there were no grounds for manslaughter charges against either Thames Trains or Railtrack. After protests from families bereaved by the crash, the case was reopened. The public hearing under Lord Cullen heard allegations that Railtrack failed to ensure that signals were properly sited.

Great Western Trains was ordered to pay a record fine of £1.5m under health and safety law for its role in the 1997 Southall collision in which seven people were killed.

The CPS recently decided to prosecute four employees of Railtrack and two at the engineering company Balfour Beatty for manslaughter over the Hatfield derailment. But it is notoriously difficult to secure guilty verdicts in such cases and the Government has faced constant demands that the law should be revised to make prosecutions easier.