Stonehaven victims awarded £1m in compensation from Network Rail after fatal train derailment

Victims of a fatal train derailment in Scotland have secured £1m in compensation from Network Rail.

It comes after the rail line operator pled guilty over its involvement in the Stonehaven train crash that claimed the lives of three people in Aberdeenshire.

The company, which owns and maintains thousands of miles of railway across Britain, was convicted at the High Court in Aberdeen in September.

Train driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died when a ScotRail train derailed near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, on August 12, 2020.

Christopher Stuchbury, Brett McCullough and Donald Dinnie died in the crash. STV News

Solicitors Digby Brown acted for seven people affected by the derailment – two people who lost loved ones and five passengers.

A spokesman for the firm said: “I can confirm our civil actions against Network Rail have all successfully settled.

“Specifics cannot be discussed however the total sum recovered was nearly £1m with all damages rightly reflecting the injuries, trauma and losses each person suffered, and will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives.

North East & Tayside

Network Rail pleads guilty over its role in fatal train derailment

The railway operator admitted it didn’t warn driver it was unsafe for train to run on section of track before derailment near Stonehaven.

“No amount of compensation will ever heal the wounds of the horrendous and avoidable tragedy at Carmont but it can at least provide recognition to those affected and the means to look to the future in the most life-affirming way possible.”

Network Rail admitted it did not warn the train’s driver that it was unsafe to drive on that section of track and of not telling him to reduce his speed.

As a result of the company’s failings, three people were so severely injured that they died.

North East & Tayside

‘My clothes were covered in blood and I could feel a bone sticking out my shoulder’

Survivor of train that derailed near Stonehaven in 2020 recounts her experience for the first time.

The train came off the tracks after it struck a landslide, hitting gravel and other stony material washed out from a drain.

It then hit the side of a bridge, causing its power car and one of its four carriages to fall down an embankment.

The prosecution came after the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) considered reports from an investigation by Police Scotland, British Transport Police and the Office of Rail and Road – the independent safety and economic regulator for the country’s railways.

A Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report published last March found that errors in the construction of a drainage system installed by Carillion meant it was unable to cope with heavy rain that fell in the area on the morning of the crash.

Carillion went into compulsory liquidation in January 2018.

The RAIB report made 20 recommendations to improve railway safety, many of which were directed at Network Rail.

Damage to ScotRail train following derailment near Stonehaven. RAIB

Mr Dinnie’s partner, Trish Ewen, said the last three years had completely turned her life upside down.

The 59-year-old former store worker had been with Mr Dinnie for eight years before the tragedy.

In a statement after the prosecution, she said: “Donald and I should be thinking about retiring together and planning the rest of our lives – instead he was taken and I’ve been left to exist alone.

“Life throws challenges at us all but something like this is so incomprehensible that there’s no past experiences to draw on to ease any acceptance or recovery.

Donald Dinnie and Trish Ewen. Contributed

“You don’t know what to do, where to turn and there’s genuinely nothing to do but brace yourself for each new day without your loved one.

“It’s right there is criminal accountability for this totally avoidable incident that has affected so many people and families, but I believe imposing a fine is counter-productive as it’s essentially the government paying a fine to itself.

“I think any financial penalty would be better invested in improving the railways or making sure all the RAIB report recommendations are acted on.”

Network Rail admitted it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practical, that railway workers not in its employment and members of the public travelling by train were not exposed to the “risk of serious injury and death from train derailment” as a result of failures in the construction, inspection and maintenance of drainage assets and in adverse and extreme weather planning.

The charge states that on August 12, 2020, Network Rail failed to impose an emergency speed restriction “in absence of current information about the integrity of the railway line and drainage assets between Montrose and Stonehaven”, and failed to inform the driver that it was unsafe to drive the train at a speed of 75mph or caution him to reduce his speed.