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NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident

You are here: Home > Forum > Miscellaneous > The real thing (anything else rail-oriented) > NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident

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NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 13/01/2012 at 13:09 #27221
AndyG
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Network Rail are to be prosecuted by the ORR after the Grayrigg accident.

BBC News item

I can only help one person a day. Today's not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look too good either.
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Re: NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 13/01/2012 at 13:13 #27222
Stephen Fulcher
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I cannot say I am surprised about this, but at the same time it is all rather meaningless.

NR will go to court and plead guilty, the judge will be compelled to sentence them to a multi-million pound fine.

The fine will be paid out of money that probably came from the taxpayer anyway, back into the exchequer.

The only thing that this achieves is to make lawyers rich, after all NR know it was their fault and so does everyone else.

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Re: NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 13/01/2012 at 13:27 #27223
outofsection
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... in other words the usual "ringful of elephants all holding each other's tails & kicking each other's backsides"!!! Or to put it another way, yet another merry-go-round of fat pay cheques for the lawyers - to prove... nothing that wasn't already known!! And all at our expense - AGAIN!!

What a way to run a railway... or a country for that matter!

"I used to be cynical but now I don't believe anything I'm told!"

Last edited: 13/01/2012 at 13:28 by outofsection
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Re: NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 13/01/2012 at 13:42 #27224
Stephen Fulcher
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I sometimes whether it is done for publicity purposes - after all BR did not appear in court on H&S charges after Clapham, in which there were far more people killed and injured.
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Re: NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 13/01/2012 at 14:50 #27227
andyb0607
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" said:
And all at our expense - AGAIN!!
This is the bit that grates me. Other than lawyers, who actually benefits from this charade?

Any money that Notwork Rail get fined is only ever passed onto the rail traveller in the long run anyway! They might as well just send every season ticket holder a bill for their share of the fine! But that is just my own cynical opinion!

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Re: NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 13/01/2012 at 15:26 #27229
jc92
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3629 posts
" said:
" said:
And all at our expense - AGAIN!!
This is the bit that grates me. Other than lawyers, who actually benefits from this charade?

Any money that Notwork Rail get fined is only ever passed onto the rail traveller in the long run anyway! They might as well just send every season ticket holder a bill for their share of the fine! But that is just my own cynical opinion!
or compensation cheque to the passengers involved and the family of the woman that died?

"We don't stop camborne wednesdays"
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Re: NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 13/01/2012 at 16:29 #27230
andyb0607
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" said:
or compensation cheque to the passengers involved and the family of the woman that died?
That's a separate issue. This is all about the fines that will be levied at Network Rail. Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I'm aware this fine money will end up back in the governments pocket. The passengers and families involved won't get it.

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Re: NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 13/01/2012 at 16:48 #27232
AndyG
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1834 posts
" said:
" said:
or compensation cheque to the passengers involved and the family of the woman that died?
That's a separate issue. This is all about the fines that will be levied at Network Rail. Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I'm aware this fine money will end up back in the governments pocket. The passengers and families involved won't get it.
Another trough for some more lawyers no doubt.

I can only help one person a day. Today's not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look too good either.
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Re: NR to be prosecuted over Grayrigg accident 16/01/2012 at 13:46 #27452
kbarber
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" said:
I sometimes whether it is done for publicity purposes - after all BR did not appear in court on H&S charges after Clapham, in which there were far more people killed and injured.

If I recall correctly there actually was a court case after Clapham. BR admitted liability - by 6pm on the day of the accident, incidentally, unlike more recent incidents! The sole purpose of the proceedings was to establish the levels of compensation to be paid, it being agreed that the proper procedure was for a judge to do it (as would be done if BR had lost a contested action). There was never any question that BR acted other than entirely correctly in the circumstances.

As others have said, prosections & fines (and indeed the general punitive armosphere that goes with them) will achieve nothing more than to enrich m'learned friends and make it look as if somebody is actually doing something. As opposed to really doing something (which would, in my view, amount to completely unwinding the privatisation structure and putting a proper railway back in its place before starting again - if they really have to - and doing it properly this time).

With apologies to outofsection, I prefer: "Cynicism is dead; a determined attempt ends up as reality", for which I thank jrb of the Blower forum.

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