Effective Safety and Health Training

Thames Trains were fined a record Ј2million for the rail crash at Ladbroke Grove; cause was described as ‘serious omissions’ in the driver training programme.

After a one-day sentence hearing at the Old Bailey, Thames Trains were fined a record Ј2million for the collision at Ladbroke Grove. The judge also awarded costs of Ј75,000 in addition to the fine. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Bell said the size of the fine "must mark the seriousness of the risk involved in the breach - a seriousness underlined by the extent of the disaster".

He continued: "I can't put a value on the lives lost and the continuing distress and pain of those bereaved and injured by the disaster." Thirty-one people died in the collision, including two train drivers, and many more suffered serious injuries.

Thames Trains pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to charges that it breached Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSW Act).

The court heard that the train driver, who was killed in the accident, had not been warned about an "infamous" signal just outside Paddington station which was known to be difficult to see. Other drivers had complained about the light, which had been passed at red on eight occasions in the previous seven years.

Prosecuting counsel Hugh Carlisle said the driver's training had included six pages of questioning on the track entry to Reading station - but not a single question about the more complicated route outside Paddington. "It is self-evident that if he had been properly trained, properly warned, [the] driver would have paid greater attention to the signal and the collision would have been avoided," said Mr Carlisle.

Thames Trains is a division of Go-Ahead Group, which made profits of Ј65m last year and has two other franchises - South Central and Thameslink. Martin Ballinger, chief executive of Go-Ahead, said the company accepted that the accident was "foreseeable and preventable" and he shared "a sense of personal failure" with many in the industry.

"Thames Trains has consistently accepted and admitted that although improvements to its training programmes were being implemented they had not been completed at the time of the accident," Mr Ballinger said.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into the collision at Ladbroke Grove was led by Steve Walker, Assistant Chief Inspector of Railways. At the sentencing hearing he said:

“HSE’s investigation into the causes of the collision revealed what Thames Trains itself described as ‘serious omissions’ in its driver training programme. Thames Trains’ driver, Michael Hodder, drove his train through signal SN109 when it was showing red. This was the immediate cause of the collision.

“While much has been done since 1999 to improve safety standards on the railways – measures that make a similar incident less likely today – there is no comfort to the bereaved and injured who have heard in court today that this collision could have been avoided. Both workers and passengers alike have a right to expect reasonable standards of safety when they travel on the railways. Our thoughts remain with the bereaved and injured.”