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Sunday, October 10, 1999

Britain to investigate railway company
Some coaches involved in latest crash were salvaged from 1997 wreck
By Mara D. Bellaby
Associated Press

   LONDON - Hanging from harnesses above deep drifts of ash, searchers sifted through the charred hull of a railway car on Saturday, looking for the remains of victims killed this week when two commuter trains crashed head-on.
   Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced an investigation into rail safety under Railtrack, the company that owns and operates Britain's formerly nationalized rail service.
   Rail unions expressed disgust when they learned that some of the train cars involved in Tuesday's deadly crash had been salvaged from another crash two years ago.
   Forty people are known to have died Tuesday when the trains collided two miles west of London's Paddington Station, Scotland Yard said. Police were also checking a list of 64 other people who might have been passengers on the trains. Few escaped.
   "It is a terrible, terrible scene," said Home Secretary Jack Straw. "This is a most appalling accident."
   Great Western Trains, which operated one of the trains, admitted that four of the coaches in Tuesday's accident had been involved in the 1997 Southall rail crash, in which seven people were killed and 150 injured.
   Company spokesman Knowles Mitchell said the coaches had suffered light damage, but were repaired and "subjected to a full safety assessment."
   But Jimmy Knapp, general secretary of the Railway, Maritime and Transport union, said he was deeply concerned at the admission.
   "There is a danger that the equipment isn't as tough or as strong as it would have been earlier," he said.
   Relatives of victims also were upset that the coaches were recycled and once again involved in a deadly crash.
   On Saturday, two pathologists began a search of the first-class car that was at the front end of a packed Great Western train heading toward Paddington. An intense fire engulfed the coach, and all that remained was a fragile, blackened shell.
   Working in 30-minute shifts, searchers in masks and protective clothing lay face down on platforms suspended inches above the knee-high debris.
   "There is twisted metal, and it is everything you could expect of a scene that was effected by a fireball with an estimated temperature of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit," Superintendent Tony Thompson of British Transport police said.
   Thompson also said a damaged data recorder had been recovered from the outbound Thames Trains service that, according to a preliminary report on Friday, passed through a red signal light before colliding with the Great Western train.
   As the nation tried to come to terms with the scale of the crash - the deadliest since 1975 - the safety of Britain's rail network was called into question.
   Prescott told reporters he had received a report from the Health and Safety Commission raising concerns about Railtrack's safety management.
   "I have asked the Health and Safety Commission to appoint a number of independent experts to investigate these concerns," Prescott said after briefing Prime Minister Tony Blair.

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