Network Rail is fined £6.7million after admitting health and safety failings over derailment that killed train driver, conductor and passenger

Network Rail has been fined £6.7 million after admitting health and safety failings over a rail crash that claimed three lives. 

Train driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the derailment near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, on August 12, 2020.

The company pleaded guilty to a charge covering the period from May 1, 2011 to August 12, 2020 at the High Court in Aberdeen yesterday. 

Judge Lord Matthews fined Network Rail £6.7 million when he sentenced the company at the court on Friday. The fine was dropped from £10 million because the firm admitted culpability.

Failings included failing to inform the driver that it was unsafe to drive the train at a speed of 75mph or caution him to reduce his speed on the day of the derailment. 

There were also failings in construction, inspection and maintenance of drainage assets and in adverse and extreme weather planning. 

The engine is removed from the scene following the crash 

Train driver Brett McCullough (left), 45, conductor Donald Dinnie (right), 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died in the derailment near Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, on August 12, 2020

Passenger Christopher Stuchbury (pictured here), 62, was the third victim of the tragic train crash in Stonehaven

Investigators at the scene of the crash near Stonehaven in Aberdeen on August 12, 2020

The crash site near Stonehaven, Aberdeen in August 2020. Three people – the train driver, conductor and a passenger – died in the derailment 

Network Rail admitted it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practical, that railway workers not in its employment and members of the public travelling by train were not exposed to the ‘risk of serious injury and death from train derailment’ as a result of failures in the construction, inspection and maintenance of drainage assets and in adverse and extreme weather planning.

Advocate depute Alex Prentice KC, prosecuting, told the court on Thursday that Network Rail had failed to maintain or inspect a drainage asset built in 2011 prior to the derailment.

He said if the drain had been constructed to the agreed specifications, it would have been able to cope with the amount of washout of gravel which resulted in the train derailing.

The court also heard Mr McCullough had asked the Carmont area signaller if there were any speed restrictions in place due to the conditions.

The signaller told him: ‘Eh no, everything’s fine between myself and Stonehaven.’

The court heard that when Mr McCullough pulled the emergency brake, there was ‘insufficient time’ for it to have any impact on the train’s speed.

At the High Court in Aberdeen, the company admitted a charge covering the period from May 1, 2011 to August 12, 2020. The derailment happened in August 2020

Bereaved family of Christopher Stuchbury including his widow Diane (right) outside the High Court in Aberdeen on September 7 

Widow of Christopher Stuchbury, Diane Stuchbury, outside the High Court in Aberdeen as Network Rail admitted health and safety failings yesterday

Scotland’s Railway managing director Alex Hynes

Train conductor Donald Dinnie (left) was killed in the derailment. Pictured with his wife Trish Ewen

A Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report published last March found errors in the construction of a drainage system installed by Carillion meant it was unable to cope with heavy rain which fell in the area on the morning of the crash.

Carillion went into compulsory liquidation in January 2018.

The RAIB report made 20 recommendations to improve railway safety, many of which were directed at Network Rail.

Network Rail said it is determined to build upon the ‘significant changes’ it has made since the incident, which have ‘helped us to manage the risk of severe weather to the network’, and it has invested millions to improve the resilience of the railway.