Driver set to stand trial over alleged role in fatal Croydon tram crash

Alfred Dorris denied a charge of failing to take reasonable care at work under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Investigators at the scene after a tram derailed and overturned in Croydon, south London, killing seven people (PA) (PA Wire)

A tram driver is set to stand trial at crown court over his alleged role in the Croydon crash that claimed the lives of seven passengers in 2016.

Alfred Dorris, 48, of Ravenscroft Road, Beckhenham, south-east London, denied a charge of failing to take reasonable care at work under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

He appeared in the dock at Croydon Crown Court on Friday wearing a black top and navy and grey bomber jacket and spoke only to enter the not guilty plea.

Seven people were killed and 51 injured in the disaster on November 9 2016 when a tram is said to have spun off the tracks and toppled over near the Sandilands stop in south London.

The victims of the crash were Dane Chinnery, 19, Philip Seary, 57, Dorota Rynkiewicz, 35, Robert Huxley, 63, and Philip Logan, 52, all from New Addington, and Donald Collett, 62, and Mark Smith, 35, both from Croydon.

Driver Alfred Dorris entered a not guilty plea (PA) (PA Wire)

Dorris allegedly “failed to negotiate the tram around the Sandilands curve at a safe speed so as to prevent the tram derailing and overturning,” according to the indictment.

Mr Justice Fraser applied to transfer the case for trial at either the Old Bailey or Southwark Crown Court on a date yet to be fixed and the driver will remain on unconditional bail.

Services on Croydon Tramlink are managed by TfL and operated by TOL, both of which indicated guilty pleas at an earlier hearing over health and safety failings in relation to the crash and will be sentenced at Croydon Crown Court at a later date.

The prosecution is being brought by regulator the Office of Rail and Road.