Transport for London and FirstGroup-owned Tram Operations Limited have pleaded guilty to health and safety failings over the 2016 Croydon tram crash, the Office of Rail and Road has said.
Seven passengers died and 51 were injured when a tram derailed in south London on 9 November 2016. The ORR alleges TfL and TOL breached section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, while the tram’s driver, Alfred Dorris, faces an allegation of breaching section 7(a) of the legislation.
At a hearing at Croydon magistrates court on Friday, Dorris, 48, of Beckenham, south-east London, indicated a not guilty plea to an allegation of failing as an employee to take reasonable care of passengers.
The ORR said TfL and TOL had pleaded guilty to their respective charges.
The ORR’s chief inspector of railways, Ian Prosser, said: “We can confirm today that Transport for London and Tram Operations Limited have pleaded guilty. Driver Alfred Dorris has pleaded not guilty.
“We conducted an extensive, detailed and thorough investigation and took the decision to prosecute all three parties for what we believe to be serious health and safety failings relating to the Croydon tram derailment on 9 November 2016, which killed seven passengers with many more seriously injured. All our thoughts are with those people. The matter has now been sent to the crown court for a pre-trial hearing to case manage and list future hearings.”
The district judge Nigel Dean released Dorris on unconditional bail to appear next at Croydon crown court on 8 July.
A number of bereaved relatives were in court for the brief hearing. The victims of the crash 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.
An inquest last year heard that the tram toppled over and spun off the tracks in darkness and heavy rain near the Sandilands stop after approaching a curve at 45mph (73kph). The speed limit for that stretch of track was 12mph (20kph).
Services on Croydon Tramlink are managed by TfL and operated by TOL. Both organisations will be sentenced at Croydon crown court on a date to be fixed for failing to ensure the health and safety of passengers, so far as reasonably practicable.
The maximum punishment for convictions over health and safety offences is an unlimited fine and up to two years’ imprisonment for individuals.
