The company that owns and manages UK rail infrastructure was slapped with a multimillion-pound fine Friday after admitting health and safety failings which led to a train derailment that killed three people.
An early morning service from Aberdeen to Glasgow came off the tracks on August 12, 2020 near the town of Stonehaven, northeast Scotland, after a landslip caused by heavy rain.
The driver of the train, a conductor and a passenger died and six other people were injured in the tragedy.
Network Rail — an arm of the UK Department for Transport — pleaded guilty to safety failings at a court hearing in Aberdeen on Thursday.
Judge Hugh Matthews fined the public body £6.7 million ($8.4 million) on Friday.
“No penalty I can impose will come close to compensating those whose lives have been touched by this tragedy,” Matthews said. “The only disposal I have is a fine.”
The judge said that the fine was reduced from £10 million due to the guilty plea as well as the company’s actions after the crash.
The court was told that the company admitted lapses in the construction, inspection and maintenance of railside drainage, and planning for extreme weather conditions.
“Extreme rainfall” and reports of severe weather, landslips and flooding in the area where the crash happened were forecast on the day of the crash.
But Network Rail failed to impose an emergency speed limit on the line and did not inform the driver it was unsafe or to cut his speed.
The train struck gravel washed onto the line, causing it to derail, decouple and hit a bridge parapet.
AFP