Croydon tram crash driver on trial for horror incident which killed seven passengers
The driver of a tram that crashed in Croydon six years ago, killing seven people, appeared in the dock at the Old Bailey today.
There were also 51 injured people in the horror crash near the Sandilands stop, when tram 2551 spun off the tracks and toppled over on November 9, 2016.
Driver Alfred Dorris, 49, from Beckenham, has denied the charge of failing to take responsible care at work under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
According to the indictment against him, he failed to “take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work, namely passengers on board tram 2551”.
Prosecutor Jonathan Ashley-Norman KC, in today’s hearing, said: “The seven deaths on the Croydon tram system early on the morning of November 9 2016 are likely to persist in the memory of all those who were adults in the UK on that day. The morning was an ugly one; wintery, dark and rainy.”
The court heard that the tram was on the route from New Addington via East Croydon to Wimbledon.
The approach to Sandilands has a sharp left-hand turn and drivers are instructed to reduce their speed to 20kph.
The court heard that the tram was travelling “at in excess of 70kph when it entered the turn”.
“At that speed it could not hope to hold the track. The inner wheels lifted from the track and the tram derailed,” the prosecutor said.
Reading aloud a short statement from one survivor, Mr Ashley-Norman said that the victim had noticed “nothing unusual” about the journey but did notice the speed at which the tram was travelling through the tunnels.
“He was going a bit quick through the tunnel but I thought nothing more of it and kept reading my magazine,” he recalled. “The next thing I knew I was waking up in hospital.”
The prosecutor told jurors that Dorris denied that he had fallen asleep while in the tunnel and denied having a “black out”.
The court heard how prior to the crash, Dorris had an “impeccable” record as a driver and was considered one of the better drivers on the network.
The trial continues.
Pictured top: The scene after the tram crash near Sandilands (Picture: PA)
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