Rail chiefs offers resignation after UK crash

Gerald Corbett: "I am distraught"

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The chief executive of the company in charge of maintaining Britain's rail infrastructure has offered to resign just a day after a train crash that killed four people and injured 34.

"I, personally, am distraught that another tragedy has occurred on our railways," Gerald Corbett, of Railtrack, said in a statement. "The families of the bereaved are foremost in my mind."

A spokesman for Railtrack said the board of directors will meet on Wednesday evening to consider whether to accept his offer to quit.

Meanwhile, a broken rail has emerged as the possible cause of Tuesday's high-speed crash, in which sections of the London-to-Leeds train careered off the track, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

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A Railtrack spokeswoman admitted on Wednesday that the track at the site of the crash was not in good condition.

"It would appear that whatever the cause of the accident, the condition of the track was not good," she said.

Railtrack director Nicholas Pollard told reporters the rail at the crash site was broken and experts were trying to determine whether it had been smashed before or during the accident.

Mangled wreckage is strewn across the tracks

"The investigations will continue urgently," he said.

As a precaution, Railtrack has imposed a speed restriction on bends on high-speed lines. Drivers will have to reduce their permitted speed by a third in such areas, leading to delays for passengers.

The police have already ruled out terrorism and the Health and Safety Executive said on Wednesday it was unlikely that vandalism or signal failure caused the accident.

Stanley Hart, from the HSE, said the focus of the investigation had shifted to track problems or a fault on the train.

He said: "We are looking at records to do with track maintenance and rolling stock maintenance." He added that the inquiry was likely to last "a considerable length of time."

Christopher Garnett, Chief Executive of the train's owner Great North Eastern Railway, appeared to support the theory that the track, not the train, was at fault.

He said initial investigations found nothing wrong with the wheels of its derailed train -- a problem blamed when a GNER train left the tracks at Sandy, north of London, in 1998, injuring nine people.

"We can find nothing wrong with the train so we are running (services) this morning," Garnett added.

Four people remained in hospital on Wednesday, one with serious injuries, after the crash which is the third major rail disaster in Britain in just over three years.

In October last year 31 people died in a crash near London's Paddington station -- Britain's worst rail crash in a decade. Another seven people were killed on the same stretch of track at Southall in September 1997.

Passenger groups have accused railway companies of putting profits before passenger safety since the network was privatised in the 1990s.

The section of track where the accident happened is expected to remain closed for several days while the wrecked carriages, some of which turned on their side, are removed.

Inspector Alex Carson, from British Transport Police, said between 60 and 70 officers are involved in a fingertip search of the area.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Search for train crash clues continues
October 17, 2000
History of tragedy of Britain's railways
October 17, 2000

Railtrack
Great North Eastern Railway

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