Families have voiced their shock and disappointment after a driver was cleared over the Croydon tram disaster in which seven passengers were killed and 21 more were seriously injured.
Alfred Dorris, 49, appeared visibly shaken when a jury at the Old Bailey acquitted him of failing to take “reasonable care” of the health and safety of himself and his 69 passengers on Tram 2551.
He was doing three times the speed he should have been going when his tram derailed on a sharp corner at Sandilands in south London on the morning of November 9 2016.
Mr Dorris denied he had a “micro-sleep” and said he became disorientated in the tunnel on approach to the curve, believing he was heading the other way.
His confusion was blamed on a combination of external factors including poor lighting and signage in the Sandilands tunnel complex, darkness and bad weather.
The jury deliberated for less than two hours on Monday to reach its unanimous verdict following the prosecution brought by the Office of Road and Rail (ORR).
Transport for London (TfL) and Tram Operations Limited (ToL) have previously admitted health and safety offences relating to significant failings ahead of the catastrophic derailment and will be sentenced next month.
The people who died were Dane Chinnery, 19, Philip Seary, 57, Dorota Rynkiewicz, 35, Robert Huxley, 63, and Philip Logan, 52, all from New Addington, and Donald Collett, 62, and Mark Smith, 35, both from Croydon.
Families of the victims had sat in court one of the Old Bailey or attended the trial by video-link from Croydon.
Speaking outside the court, Mr Smith’s mother Jean said she was “gobsmacked” at the verdict and called for a “radical shake-up” of the judicial system.
She said: “At the end of the day, he may have been found not guilty, but he was driving that tram and nobody else was.
“We’ll get over this, like we get over everything else, and we’ll just carry on our lives. Unfortunately, it’s a lot emptier without our Mark.
“There’s going to be a little eight-year-old boy who’s going to wonder why nobody’s responsible for what happened to his daddy.”
Father Colin Smith said: “It’s just a burden of shame, basically, at the end of the day. Whoever was responsible for it is beside the point now it’s been proven the other way.”
Mr Collett’s brother Joe there were “no winners at all” and also felt the system had let him down.
He told reporters he felt “very disappointed” because “the only one who knows what happened and the truth is Mr Dorris”.
He added: “He had done the journey several thousand times and this day he said he had a bad day – but seven people had a worst day.”
Philip Logan’s granddaughter Danielle Wynne said: “A not guilty verdict to me is like someone stabbing me in the chest. It feels so deflating.
“I don’t believe that morning (Mr Dorris) set out to kill anyone. But he did kill people. There has to be some kind of accountability.”
In a statement outside court, Mr Dorris of Beckenham, south-east London, said: “I woke up that morning and turned up for work as a professional tram driver.
“I had every intention to carry out my duties as a professional and that included to take reasonable care of my passengers and myself.
“Unfortunately, that morning went horribly wrong. And that was because of something I wasn’t in control of.
“I am deeply and sincerely sorry I wasn’t able to do anything to stop that tram from turning over.
“I’m sorry that some of you have lost someone. Some of you have had life-changing injuries and all of you have suffered and endured the mental trauma since the accident.
“I’m truly and deeply sorry. It’s something that I am going to have to live with for the rest of my life. I would just like to end by saying there are no winners in this case.”
Previously, the court heard it had been a wet, wintry morning when Tram 2551 embarked on its route from New Addington to Wimbledon via East Croydon.
At a sharp left turn on the approach to Sandilands, drivers are instructed to reduce speed to 12mph (20kph) to safely negotiate the curve, with a sign on the bend confirming it.
Mr Dorris was travelling in excess of 43mph (70kph), causing the inner wheels to come off the track and the tram to tip over.
Survivors described being “flung” about as if in a washing machine or a pinball machine, then a moment of silence before people began to scream and shout.
Mr Dorris broke down in court as he recalled the moments before the tragedy, saying: “It was like I went into shock. I could not do anything. I wanted to reach for the brake but at that stage the tram was already going over and I was thrown out of the chair, and I could not do anything.
“I can remember being thrown from the chair to the side of the cabin and my shoulder took the impact, and I hit the side of my head on the side of the cabin.
“I can remember lying on the floor and then it goes black; I passed out, because I cannot remember the tram sliding or becoming stationary.
“The next thing, I remember hearing voices and people kicking trying to open the cabin door.”
Prosecutor Jonathan Ashley-Norman KC said it was an “accident waiting to happen”.
Mr Dorris was described as having an “impeccable” past record and was seen as one of the better drivers.
The court heard of an alleged “near-miss” 10 days before the derailment in an identical location at a similar time involving another driver.
The Old Bailey jurors were not told that an inquest in 2021 concluded that the victims died as a result of an accident and were not unlawfully killed.
Dorris had been excused from attending the inquest because he was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
