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Rail inquiry opens with admission over crashes
From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Tuesday 19th Sep 2000.
Bereaved relatives and survivors of the Southall rail crash were today attending a memorial service on the third anniversary of the disaster in which Swindon College principal Clive Brain, 57, was killed.
Seven people died and 147 others were injured.
Mr Brain was on his way to a meeting of other college principals. A shortened session of the Westminster-based joint inquiry into the Southall crash, and last year's Ladbroke Grove rail disaster in which 31 people were killed, was scheduled for today so that interested parties could attend both.
Yesterday it opened with the disclosure that an estimated 100 passengers will be killed in the next 24 years due to the same errors that triggered the Southall and Ladbroke Grove tragedies.
Ian Burnett, QC, counsel to the joint inquiry into train protection systems, said Railtrack's programme for preventing trains from passing through red lights was lagging behind schedule.
He told the inquiry that Railtrack's schedule for the elimination of Signals Passed at Danger (SPADs) had been sliding since 1995 and that progress is currently slower than expected.
Referring to research into crashes in the UK since 1967 Mr Burnett disclosed that the frequency of SPAD-related crashes in the form that sparked disaster at Ladbroke Grove and Southall are increasing annually.
Among those killed at Ladbroke Grove were Swindon computer programmer David Roberts, 35, of Kingshill and Bryan Tompson, 61, of Ampney Crucis, Cirencester.
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