Network Rail due in court over fatal derailment

Network Rail is due in court over a train crash which claimed three lives.

Train driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the derailment near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, on August 12, 2020.

The case will call at the High Court in Aberdeen on Wednesday.

The ScotRail train derailed at 9.37am after it struck a landslide, hitting gravel and other stony material washed out from a drain.

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

The case is listed on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service court rolls as a Section 76 indictment, a procedure which suggests a guilty plea may be offered.

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

A Network Rail spokesman said previously: “Since August 2020, we have been working hard to make our railway safer for our passengers and colleagues.

“We are committed to delivering on the recommendations made by RAIB and have also made other significant changes to how we manage the risk of severe weather to our network.

“Immediately after the accident, we inspected all similar locations across Britain and we also conducted a full survey of all types of trackside drainage on Scotland’s railway.

“We have invested millions towards improving the resilience of our railway and are rolling out new technology to help us better respond to extreme weather events.”

The spokesman said Network Rail has also changed how it manages the running of train services during periods when severe weather warnings are in place, and has introduced a new team of weather experts to its control room to provide round-the-clock, real-time analysis on how the weather may affect the railway.

He added: “From our day-to-day operations to our future planning, we are working hard to make our railway as safe and reliable as possible.”