UK: Transport for London and Tram Operations Ltd have been fined a total of £14m over the fatal London Trams derailment at Sandilands in Croydon.
Seven passengers were killed and many more injured in November 2016 when a tram overturned after entering a sharp curve at around three times the speed limit.
Transport authority and network owner TfL was fined £10m and the FirstGroup-owned operator Tram Operations Ltd was fined £4m at the Old Bailey on July 27.
This follows a prosecution brought by the Office of Rail & Road, with each company pleading guilty to breaches of sections 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
ORR said neither company had performed a suitable or sufficient assessment of the risks of a high-speed derailment on the network.
‘When faced with the evidence of their failure over a number of years, both TfL and TOL accepted that they had not done everything that was reasonably practicable to ensure the safety of their passengers, with terrible consequences’, said Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser.
‘The judge’s remarks and the sentences imposed underline to the corporate defendants and the whole industry that their first responsibility is to ensure the safety of their passengers and staff.’
Following the sentencing, London’s Transport Commissioner Andy Lord said ‘I apologise on behalf of everyone at Transport for London, both past and present, for this tragedy and for the pain, distress and suffering that all those affected have endured and continue to endure.’
He said TfL had ‘accepted responsibility promptly and we did everything possible to ensure the right support was quickly in place to help all those affected.’
FirstGroup CEO Graham Sutherland said ‘I would like to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies to all those in Croydon and beyond, upon whom the tragedy had such deep and lasting effects. Our commitment to safety is integral to everything we do and on behalf of everyone at FirstGroup, I would like to reiterate how profoundly sorry we are that such an incident could take place aboard a service operated by one of our companies’.
On June 19 a jury at the Old Bailey had found the tram driver not guilty of failing to take reasonable care of the passengers.
TfL actions following the Sandilands tram derailment
- additional speed restrictions;
- lowering the maximum speed from 80 to 70 km/h;
- installation of enhanced chevron signs at four sites with significant bends, increasing the number of speed signs and providing additional lineside digital signage;
- ‘cats eyes’ installed in the Sandilands tunnels to provide visual orientation between the individual sections of tunnel and direction of travel;
- an in-cab driver protection device fitted to all trams since October 2017 monitors the driver’s face and alerts them if there is any indication of inattentiveness;
- thicker window film improves the containment provided by windows and doors;
- emergency lighting that operates independently of the tram’s battery;
- new tunnel lighting at Sandilands;
- an automatic braking system that brings a moving tram to a controlled stop if exceeding the speed limit at designated locations;
- procedures for emergency evacuation have been fully reviewed;
- route risk assessments and risk models updated and shared across the UK tram industry;
- upgraded CCTV recording equipment installed in the Bombardier Transportation trams.
