Aftermath
The recommendations of the Cullen inquiry led to the creation in 2003 of the Rail Safety and Standards Board and in 2005 of the Rail Accident Investigation Branch in addition to the Railway Inspectorate. Standards-setting, accident investigation and regulation functions were henceforth clearly separated, on the model of the aviation industry
On 5 April 2004, Thames Trains was fined a record £2,000,000 for violations of health and safety law in connection with this accident. It was also ordered to pay £75000 in costs.
On 31 October 2006, Network Rail (the successor body to Railtrack, formed in the wake of a subsequent train crash at Hatfield) pleaded guilty to charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in relation to the accident. It received a fine of £4 million on 30 March 2007, and was ordered to pay £225,000 in costs.
Signal SN109 was brought back into service in February 2006. It and many other signals in the Paddington area are now single-lens type signals.
A memorial garden has been set up, partially overlooking the crash site and accessible from the adjacent Sainsburys supermarket car park.
Power car 43011 was scrapped. Having sustained heavy damage in the crash, when written off, it was disposed of after the completion of the inquiry of the incident, and was cut up by Sims Metals in Crewe, Cheshire in June 2002. Excluding one of the prototypes, it is one of the only 3 class 43 (HST) locomotives to be scrapped. The Turbo train was also written off. While the front two carriages were scrapped, the rear trailer was undamaged and is now a spare carriage.
Read more about this topic: Ladbroke Grove Rail Crash
Famous quotes containing the word aftermath:
“The aftermath of joy is not usually more joy.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)