Anger As Railway Tragedy Recalled

SURVIVORS of the Potters Bar rail crash and those bereaved by the accident will mark the fifth anniversary of the tragedy this week amid accusations that no lessons have been learnt.They will gather on Thursday at a memorial garden at Potters Bar station, in Hertfordshire, where a highspeed train derailed on May 10, 2002.The anniversary of the crash, in which seven people died, comes two months after a Virgin Pendolino train derailed in Cumbria in a similar accident.Just as at Potters Bar, the Cumbria derailment, in which an 84-year-old woman died, was caused by faulty points.And just as at Potters Bar, the Cumbria accident highlighted maintenance deficiencies.The May 2002 accident happened when a West Anglia Great Northern high-speed train travelling from London to Kings Lynn, in Norfolk, was derailed as it went over faulty points outside Potters Bar station.Author Nina Bawden, now 82, was travelling on the West Anglia Great Northern train with her husband, Austen Kark, when the accident happened.Mr Kark died, aged 75, and Ms Bawden spent more than two months in hospital with severe injuries – including a shattered ankle – that still plague her today.”The Cumbria crash showed that no lessons have been learnt, ” said Ms Bawden, who has just had to endure another spell in hospital.”If a public inquiry had been held into the Potters Bar crash then the Cumbria derailment would not have occurred.”The Government don’t seem to give a damn about the railways. If the Government paid attention to the wishes of ordinary people then they would renationalise the railways.”Ms Bawden, who wrote a book about the accident, entitled Dear Austen, added: “Although Network Rail have taken back the maintenance work and are responsible for it themselves, it’s still the same old people doing the work.”That particular section of track was maintained by private company Jarvis, while overall responsibility for safety of the railways lay with Railtrack. After the crash, Network Rail, the company that replaced Railtrack, took all maintenance back “in house”.

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