New probe into Paddington crash

CRIMINAL inquiries into the Paddington rail disaster are to be reopened after a dramatic U-turn by the Crown Prosecution Service. The move, a significant victory for relatives of the 31 dead, means British Transport Police will look again at the possibility of putting Railtrack chiefs in the dock on corporate manslaughter charges over the October 1999 crash.

That is likely to prove a fresh setback for Gerald Corbett, chief executive of Railtrack at the time of the tragedy. The public inquiry into the Paddington smash branded Railtrack under Corbett's leadership as being 'dangerously complacent'.

The surprise change comes seven months after the CPS announced that there was no chance of a prosecution even though 'the evidence in this case clearly reveals a history of corporate failings'. The CPS agreed to look again after a threat of legal action from victims' families who insisted the law had been wrongly interpreted. Now Cardiff University academic Celia Wells has confirmed that view in an internal report for the CPS.

British Transport Police will now reopen the case, but senior officers are concerned that key evidence will be off-limits. This is because any prosecution case will not be able to rely on evidence presented to Lord Cullen's public inquiry which was given under immunity from prosecution.

Louise Christian, lawyer for many of the Paddington families, said: 'The families are very encouraged, but there is a long way to go to getting any kind of prosecution. It is like trying to hack away at a large granite wall with a pair of nail scissors. This is another small chip out of the edifice.'

Railtrack, which is now the only company in the frame, refused to comment. Since the disaster at Ladbroke Grove, major crashes at Hatfield and Potters Bar have escalated passenger fears about rail safety.

The new investigation will centre on the siting of Signal 109, which Thames Trains driver Michael Hodder passed at red, continuing for 700 metres into the path of a high-speed Great Western express. They met at a combined speed of more than 130mph, killing 31 and injuring more than 500.

Train drivers told the public inquiry into the tragedy that they had suffered previous problems with the signal, which, they said, they could not see because of the proliferation of rail infrastructure, including overhead lines and gantries. Railtrack, responsible for track and signal maintenance, had also been warned in writing by Great Western Trains about the signal two miles outside Paddington, but failed to take action.

Lord Cullen's inquiry condemned Railtrack for 'lamentable failure' but hopes of a prosecution foundered because of longstanding loopholes in the law on corporate manslaughter which make it difficult to identify the 'controlling mind' of a large company. Corbett quit Railtrack in November 2000 with a £1.6m pay-off following the Hatfield smash. He is now chairman of retailer Woolworths.

In coming to its initial decision last year, the CPS said no prosecution was possible because it could not show that the accident had been caused directly by management failures. The families argued that the correct interpretation of the law was whether management failings were 'a substantial cause'. Wells has confirmed the families' lawyers were correct.

A spokesman for BTP said it would look at very specific aspects of the disaster. 'We have not been asked to reopen the whole inquiry.' This, effectively, lets Thames Trains directors - heavily criticised for their failures in driver training - off the hook. A spokesman for the train company, owned by Go-Ahead Group, said it would 'co-operate fully' with any new investigation. Shares in Go-Ahead were unchanged, but FirstGroup, which operates the Great Western Franchise, fell 3.5%.