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| Network Rail admits crash errors | Network Rail admits crash errors |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Network Rail is facing an unlimited fine after admitting health and safety breaches relating to the 1999 Ladbroke Grove rail crash that claimed 31 lives. | Network Rail is facing an unlimited fine after admitting health and safety breaches relating to the 1999 Ladbroke Grove rail crash that claimed 31 lives. |
| The company, formerly Railtrack, pleaded guilty to charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. | The company, formerly Railtrack, pleaded guilty to charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. |
| A Thames Trains train driven by Michael Hodder, 31, passed a red signal and hit a London-bound Great Western express. | A Thames Trains train driven by Michael Hodder, 31, passed a red signal and hit a London-bound Great Western express. |
| Network Rail pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the signal was clearly visible from a sufficient distance. | Network Rail pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the signal was clearly visible from a sufficient distance. |
| The charge the company admitted also said part of the signal had been obscured by a large insulator. | |
| Network Rail, which owns and operates the entire rail infrastructure, had failed to ensure "so far as was reasonably practicable that persons not in its employment who might be affected thereby were not thereby exposed to risks to their health and safety", it said. | |
| We are going to stick this out Bereaved mother Linda Di Lieto | |
| Covering two A4 sheets of paper, the charge also said the signal configuration at the crash scene had been "found nowhere else in the UK". | |
| It further criticised Network Rail for failing to ensure a signal sighting committee met, not only following equipment installation in 1995, but also after six Spad (Signals Passed At Danger) incidents between 1996 and 1998. | |
| The company also admitted failing to conduct any "adequate risk assessment" or investigation following the Spads. | |
| But its guilty plea is simply an admission of risk creation - not an acceptance of responsibility for the deaths and injuries caused by the crash. | |
| At London's Blackfriars Crown Court Judge, Aidan Marron QC adjourned sentencing until 18 December, when Network Rail will indicate the full basis of its guilty plea in writing. | |
| They have put all the bereaved families through torture Bereaved mother Maureen Groves | |
| Nigel Sweeney QC, defending, had asked for the adjournment to allow time for a mass of "unused material" to be examined. | |
| But the relatives of three of those who died, who attended the 20-minute plea and case management hearing, called it yet another example of "prevarication" by Network Rail. | |
| Linda Di Lieto, whose son, Sam, a 24-year-old Cellnet sim designer manager, from Bloomsbury, central London, was killed on the Thames train, said: "It seems it is just a game to them. | |
| "How many times can they keep delaying? This has been going on for seven years. | |
| "But we are going to stick this out. We are not going to vanish." | |
| Railtrack killed my daughter Bereaved father Robin Kellow | |
| Maureen Groves, whose daughter, Juliet, 25, a chartered accountant from Chiswick, west London, was also on the three-carriage local service, said: "They are playing for time, just trying to wear us down. | |
| "The legal costs of all this must be staggering and could have gone on making the railway safer. | |
| "They have wasted so much money and they have put all the bereaved families through torture." | |
| Robin Kellow, whose daughter, Elaine, 24, an IT worker from Paddington, central London, was also among the fatalities, said: "Railtrack killed my daughter. Everybody knows they did." | |
| Lessons have been learnt and the rail industry has changed enormously for the better over the past seven years Network Rail | |
| A Network Rail spokesman said: "The Ladbroke Grove tragedy was a terrible event for everyone involved. | |
| "Lessons have been learnt and the rail industry has changed enormously for the better over the past seven years. | |
| "The tragedy happened before the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) became available. | |
| "TPWS automatically applies a train's brakes if it is approaching a red signal too quickly to stop. | |
| "This system has greatly reduced the risk of an accident caused by a train passing a red light. | |
| Public inquiry | |
| "This change, along with many others, has helped to make rail travel today the safest form of transport." | |
| More than 400 people were injured in the crash on 5 October, 1999. | More than 400 people were injured in the crash on 5 October, 1999. |
| Thames Trains and Railtrack were both criticised in a public inquiry report by Lord Cullen. | Thames Trains and Railtrack were both criticised in a public inquiry report by Lord Cullen. |
| Thames Trains pleaded guilty to health and safety offences in relation to the 1999 crash and was fined £2m in April 2004. | Thames Trains pleaded guilty to health and safety offences in relation to the 1999 crash and was fined £2m in April 2004. |