'We need honest answers'

Nina Bawden, who was critically injured in the Potters Bar rail crash which claimed the life of her husband and six others, today blamed the Government for the disaster.

The Carrie's War author, whose husband, former BBC World Service chief Austen Kark, was killed in the 10 May tragedy, believes that poor maintenance - and not sabotage - was the cause of the crash.

Calling for a public inquiry into the cause of the disaster, Ms Bawden, 77, said: "Poor maintenance, cutting corners, all the sort of things that happen when people do not care for the industry they work in, are what caused the crash. Sabotage? Rubbish.

"Anyone with an ounce of sense will realise that's not true. We need a public inquiry so that all relatives of victims can ask questions and get answers. It is the only honest way to conduct matters after a disaster."

In an interview striking for its lack of selfpity, Ms Bawden described the events of the crash as "an horrific nightmare which I thought I was never going to wake up from".

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, she called for Labour to have the courage to tackle the "parlous" state of the railways following privatisation - or at the very least for an end to contracting-out in the industry.

Her call comes as Jarvis, the contractor in charge of maintenance at Potters Bar, announced a sharp rise in profits for the period before the crash.

Ms Bawden, who also called for the renationalisation of railways, can only remember boarding the doomed train and waking up in a hospital bed. She has no memory of the crash.

"I was travelling to Cambridge with my husband for a friend's birthday when the accident happened.

"I think I can remember getting on the train but then I remember absolutely nothing until somebody from the depths of a black pit said, 'You have been in a train smash,' " she said.

"Then there were some dreadful dreams in which I knew my husband had been hurt or something had happened and I was in one of those hospital beds with high sides.

"I knew if I could get out I could find him. I didn't think the children would have found him, even though they told me they had."

It was a week before the reality sank in, she said.

"I remember all the children standing around, looking down at me from a kind of cloud and smiling and being lovely," she said.

"But it was all very confused because I didn't really know what had happened or under-stand, until one day I woke and realised that trying to look for him was no good, that he was in fact dead, and they told me he was dead and they said there had been this terrible crash and I was horribly injured."

Her relatives have now written to Transport Secretary Alistair Darling saying: "Accidents will always happen but we believe that Potters Bar was an avoidable accident and attributable to the botched privatisation by the Conservative government, and the failure of the Labour government to address until recently the institutional failings of privatisation-Although we do not yet know for certain-the causes of the Hatfield and Potters Bar crashes, the evidence, as set out in the Health and Safety Executive reports, clearly points in the direction of poor maintenance."

The letter was signed by Ms Bawden's daughter Perdita Kark and son Robert Bawden, the author's brother Robin Mabey and her granddaughter Jessica Bawden. Mr Kark's daughters Teresa Solomon and Catherine Barribeau also signed the letter.

The relatives wrote: "If you had lost a loved one, you would want a public examination of what happened and why Mr Byers' approach effectively puts off a decision for a public inquiry for some time.

"As relatives we are entitled to demand there should be a transparent, fair and impartial inquiry process where our legal representatives can test the evidence."

The Government has not yet decided whether to hold a public inquiry into last month's crash, in which seven people died. Former Transport Secretary Stephen Byers said a decision would be made only after the HSE's conclusions.