UK rail group found guilty of safety lapse in crash

LONDON - A British court on Tuesday found Network Rail, the nation's rail network operator, guilty of breaking safety rules in connection with a train crash north of London in 2000 that killed New Zealander Robert Alcorn and three others, the company said.

The court dismissed individual health and safety charges, however, against four Network Rail employees in relation to the accident, the rail operator said in a statement.

Mr Alcorn, 37, a commercial pilot from Auckland, and three other people, including a fellow pilot, were killed when the train derailed at 180km/h, at Hatfield on October 17 2000.

The others killed were his colleague Steve Arthur, 46, of Pease Pottage, West Sussex, Leslie Gray, 43, of Tuxford, Nottingham, and Peter Monkhouse, 50, of Headingley, Leeds. Thirty other passengers were injured.

The accident was blamed on a broken rail and led to a nationwide track upgrade, which severely disrupted trains and punched a hole in Railtrack's ailing finances.

"The Hatfield tragedy was a terrible event for everyone involved, and our thoughts today are with those who died and were injured on that day and their families. Once again we wish to say we are sorry that it ever happened," Network Rail Chairman Ian McAllister said.

Network Rail said in a statement that the court found it guilty of offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Other individual charges against employees were dismissed.

Railtrack collapsed in 2002 after the government withdrew taxpayers' funds, and Network Rail took over the ownership and maintenance of Britain's network of tracks and stations.

In July this year, a court dismissed manslaughter charges against executives from Railtrack and rail maintenance firm Balfour Beatty over the accident.

Separate corporate manslaughter charges against Railtrack and Balfour Beatty over the crash were also dismissed last year. The firms could have faced unlimited fines if convicted.

Mr Alcorn and Mr Arthur were commercial pilots travelling to Leeds to fly a Learjet for the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One motor racing team. Mr Alcorn, who lived in Bayswater, West London, died from multiple injuries including severe head and neck injuries.

- REUTERS