CPS statement: Potters Bar rail crash

17/10/2005

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has advised British Transport Police (BTP) on whether criminal charges should be brought in relation to the Potters Bar derailment in May 2002.

CPS Principal Legal Adviser Chris Newell said:

"After giving careful consideration to the large volume of evidence provided, the CPS has advised that it does not provide a realistic prospect of conviction for an offence of gross negligence manslaughter against any individual or corporation.

The rail crash at Potters Bar resulted in the deaths of seven passengers. Around seventy more were injured, several of them seriously. Our thoughts are with those victims and the relatives of the deceased."

The case will now be referred to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to consider whether or not proceedings under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 are appropriate.

To bring a prosecution for gross negligence manslaughter, the CPS needed to have identified a specific individual as committing a breach of duty of care, which was so serious or gross as to be criminal to the level of manslaughter, as well as being a substantial cause of the deaths of the deceased.

No individual was identified as having committed that breach of care, in the first instance because it was impossible to pinpoint when the faults occurred which caused the points failure. Without an individual being identified, no prosecution could proceed against a corporation.

The CPS's decision comes four months after receiving the final evidence from BTP. The investigation began in July 2002 and was led by BTP under the Work-Related Deaths Protocol, on the basis that a serious criminal offence could have caused the accident. HSE took over the lead in March 2004 because the emphasis of the investigation had turned to systems and procedures, which fall within the specialist skills and experience of HSE investigators.

Notes to Editors

Media enquiries to CPS Press Office on 020 7796 8105.