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The Hatfield rail crash was a
railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
accident on 17 October 2000, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. It was caused by a metal fatigue-induced derailment, killing four people and injuring more than 70. The accident exposed major stewardship shortcomings of the privatised national railway infrastructure company
Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...
. Reports found there was a lack of communication and some staff were not aware of maintenance procedures. Railtrack subsequently went into
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
and was replaced by
Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...
. The aftermath of the accident saw widespread speed limit reductions throughout the rail network and a tightening of health and safety procedures, the repercussions of which were still felt years later. In 2005, both Railtrack and the contractor Balfour Beatty were found guilty of breaching health and safety laws.


Accident

A Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) InterCity 225 train bound for
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
had left
London King's Cross King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United Kin ...
at 12:10, and was travelling along the East Coast Main Line at approximately when it derailed south of Hatfield station at 12:23. The train was in the control of an experienced driver trainer accompanied by a trainee driver. It had been agreed at Kings Cross that the trainee would drive the 12:10 service to Leeds. The primary cause of the accident was later determined to be the left-hand rail fracturing as the train passed over it. The train travelled a further after derailment. The leading locomotive and the first two coaches remained upright and on the rails. All of the following coaches and the trailing Driving Van Trailer (DVT) were derailed, and the train set separated into three sections. The restaurant coach, the eighth vehicle in the set, overturned onto its side and struck an
overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipm ...
gantry after derailing, resulting in severe damage to the vehicle. The whole incident occurred in 17seconds. Four passengers died in the accident and a further 33 were initially reported as injured, three seriously. The number of injured was later revised to over 70. Those who died were all in the restaurant coach: * Robert James Alcorn, 37, of
Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
* Steve Arthur, 46, from Pease Pottage,
West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
* Leslie Gray, 43, of
Tuxford Tuxford is a historic market town and a civil parish in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 2,516, increasing to 2,649 at the 2011 census. Geography Nearby towns are Ollerton, R ...
,
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...
* Peter Monkhouse, 50, of Headingley,
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...
Two of those seriously injured were GNER staff working in the restaurant coach at the time of the accident. '' Emmerdale'' actress Anna Brecon was travelling on the train, and suffered minor cuts and bruises. Another passenger was the television reporter
Justin Rowlatt Justin Rowlatt (born June 1966) is a British journalist, news reporter and television presenter who is currently working as Climate Editor for BBC News. In February 2015 he became the BBC's South Asia Correspondent, based in Delhi. In June 2019 h ...
, who said he "watched the carriages skid and whip around on the gravel besides the track". Crash investigators found the
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...
-designed Mark 4 coaches had good structural integrity and, aside from the restaurant coach, remained intact after the accident. Coincidentally, the locomotive in the crash was also involved in the Selby rail crash (where the leading DVT hit a road vehicle on the track) four months later.


Cause

A preliminary investigation found a rail had fragmented as trains passed and that the likely cause was "rolling contact fatigue" (defined as multiple surface-breaking cracks). Such cracks are caused by high loads where the wheels contact the rail. Repeated high loading causes fatigue cracks to grow. When they reach a critical size, the rail fails. Portions of the failed track at Hatfield were reassembled and numerous fatigue cracks were identified. They contributed to the
spalling Spall are fragments of a material that are broken off a larger solid body. It can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, weathering, cavitation, or excessive rolling pressure (as in a ba ...
of the running surface to around deep and long. The problem was known about before the accident; a letter from the infrastructure company
Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...
in December 1999 warned that the existing Railtrack Line Specification was insufficient to guard against this type of fatigue. Replacement rails were made available but never delivered to the correct location for installation. Since privatisation, Railtrack had divested the engineering knowledge of British Rail to contractors. While it had comprehensive maintenance procedures that might have prevented the accident if followed appropriately, later investigation showed there was a serious problem with the experience and working knowledge of staff. In a subsequent interview, the Zone Quality Standards Manager said, "I do not have knowledge of railway engineering nor railway safety", which was completely contrary to the written requirements for the role. In May 1999, the Head of Track had said that insufficiently-skilled work was causing more rails to break. Railtrack did not know how many other cases of rail fatigue around the network could lead to a similar accident. It consequently imposed over 1,800 emergency speed restrictions and instigated a costly nationwide track replacement programme. The company was subject to "enforcement" by the
Rail Regulator The Rail Regulator was a statutory office, created with effect from 1 December 1993 by section 1 of the Railways Act 1993, for the independent economic regulation of the British railway industry. The office was abolished from 4 July 2004, using ...
, Tom Winsor.


Aftermath

In 2004, Steve Arthur's widow was awarded £1million damages in the High Court. The families of the other three fatal casualties received damages out of court. A memorial service was held for the victims on the tenth anniversary of the crash in 2010 at
St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield St Etheldreda's is the Anglican parish church of Old Hatfield, Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.  Parts of the building are 13th century and there is evidence there was a church here before this in Saxon times. It is situated in the ...
. A second service was held near the crash site afterwards. Both were conducted by the Rector of Hatfield, who had attended to casualties and the bereaved in the immediate aftermath of the accident in 2000. The speed restrictions and track replacement works caused significant disruption on a majority of the national network for more than a year. The disruption and Railtrack's spiralling costs eventually caused the company to enter
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
at the insistence of Transport Secretary Stephen Byers, and its replacement by the not-for-dividend company
Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...
under Byers's successor Alistair Darling. Train operating companies were adversely affected by the disruption, losing an estimated 19% of revenue in the year following the crash. Freight operator EWS was cancelling up to 400 trains per week as a result, whilst estimates put Freightliner's resultant losses at £1million per month. The cost to the entire UK economy of the disruption was estimated at £6million per day. The Institute of Rail Welding (IoRW) was set up in 2002 by The Welding Institute (TWI) and Network Rail as a consequence of the recommendations in the investigation report. It provides a focus for individuals and organisations involved in rail welding and facilitates the adoption of best practice. The aftermath of the crash had long-reaching repercussions in the rail industry. In 2015, at the fifteenth anniversary of the accident, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said a new system for handling maintenance introduced by Network Rail was confusing, and there was the potential for a similar accident. The union's general secretary said that Network Rail needed to act on its concerns, otherwise there would be
industrial action Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay and to increa ...
. The Class 91 powering the train involved in the Hatfield rail crash would later be involved in the Selby rail crash four months later, sustaining minor damage. It was repaired again following the accident, and remained in service for a further 20 years, finally being scrapped at Sims Metals Scrapyard in Nottingham in 2021. As a result of its involvement in both accidents, it had gained the unofficial nickname 'Lucky'.


Court case

In 2003, five managers and two companies – Network Rail (as successors of Railtrack) and the division of Balfour Beatty that maintained the track – were charged with
manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
and breach of health and safety charges in connection with the accident. The managers, Anthony Walker (Balfour Beatty's rail maintenance director), Nicholas Jeffries (its
civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
), Railtrack's Alistair Cook and Sean Fugill (asset managers for the London North-East zone), and track engineer Keith Lee, all denied the charges. The corporate manslaughter charges against Railtrack/Network Rail and some of its executives were dropped in September 2004, but the other charges stood. The trial began in January 2005; the judge, Mr Justice Mackay, warned that it could go on for a year. On 14 July, the judge instructed the jury to acquit all defendants on charges of manslaughter. A few days later, Balfour Beatty changed its plea to guilty on the health and safety charges, and on 6 September, Network Rail was found guilty of breaching health and safety law. Network Rail were fined £3.5 million while Balfour Beatty were fined £10 million. All of the manslaughter charges against the executives were dismissed by the judge.


See also

* Ladbroke Grove rail crash, an earlier accident that also led to reforms in British railway management and safety *
List of rail accidents in the United Kingdom This lists significant accidents involving railway rolling stock, including crashes, fires and incidents of crew being overcome by locomotive emissions. Other railway-related incidents such as the King's Cross fire of 1987 or the 7 July 2005 Lond ...


References

Notes Citations Sources *


External links


ORR summary: Hatfield train derailment (archive copy)ORR Final Report by the Independent Investigation Board (archive copy)Health & Safety Executive page on the Hatfield crashWhy Rails Crack
''Ingenia'', June 2005
Hatfield Rail Disaster – OpenLearn from The Open University
*BBC News coverage:
BBC News In Depth – Hatfield crash
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatfield Rail Crash Railway accidents and incidents in Hertfordshire History of Hertfordshire Railway accidents in 2000 2000 disasters in the United Kingdom Hatfield, Hertfordshire 2000s in Hertfordshire October 2000 events in the United Kingdom