Get privateers off the railways, says RMT after Tebay verdict

Publication Date: March 16 2006

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST rail union today renewed its call for an end to the lethal fragmentation of rail privatisation after a Newcastle jury found sub-contractor Mark Connolly guilty of the manslaughter of four rail workers at Tebay, Cumbria, two years ago.

Chris Waters, Gary Tindall, Colin Buckley and Darren Burgess were killed on the morning of February 15, 2004 when a runaway three-ton flatbed trailer laden with 16 tons of scrap rail struck them after careering downhill for three miles. Nine other workers were injured.

The vehicle, owned by Connolly, had been secured only by a length of two-inch fence-post. The trial heard evidence that the hydraulic brakes had been disconnected deliberately and doctored to avoid their faulty condition being discovered if tested.

The victims all worked for main contractor Carillion, which quickly accepted its civil liability for the deaths and injuries caused by defective equipment.

"Today we should pause to remember those who were killed and injured at Tebay, but we should also pledge to end the ludicrous set-up that caused the disaster," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Tebay was not an accident. It was the direct result of the privatisation and fragmentation of our railways, and the time has come to stop safety taking second place to profit.

"Today, two years after Tebay, we still have a confusion of contractors, subcontractors, one-man-and-a-dog owner-operator plant-hire outfits, and a host of labour-only agencies.

"That means there is no consistent application of safety standards and no central line of command and communication.

"Network Rail brought rail maintenance back in-house for safety and efficiency reasons, and they should now finish that job and bring renewals work back in-house too.

"It makes a change to see someone responsible for workers' deaths face the consequences, but we should remember that Connolly was charged as an individual, not with corporate manslaughter.

"We are still seeing too many corporate killers let off the hook, and we still need the government to keep its promise to change the law so that profit-hungry bosses responsible for workers' deaths end up behind bars where they belong," Bob Crow said.