Croydon tram crash: TfL fined £10m for disaster that killed 7

Transport for London (TfL) has been fined £10m for the health and safety failings in the Croydon tram crash in 2016 that killed seven people.

The tram derailed near Sandilands station on the morning of November 9, 2016, after it turned a sharp curve. The court heard that the tram was going three times the 20kph speed limit. Of the 69 passengers on the tram, only one escaped injury.

Tram Operations Limited have been fined £4m alongside TfL as they both accepted failures in their health and safety duties.

Driver Alfred Dorris, 49, from Beckenham, Lewisham, was cleared in June this year after claiming he had become disorientated and thought he was going in the other direction.

Dorris said he became disoriented in the tunnel on approach to the curve – blaming a combination of external factors including poor lighting and signage around the tunnel, darkness and bad weather.

The people who died were Dane Chinnery, 19, Philip Seary, 57, Dorota Rynkiewicz, 35, Robert Huxley, 63, and Philip Logan, 52, all from New Addington, and Donald Collett, 62, and Mark Smith, 35, both from Croydon.

Ian Prosser CBE, Chief Inspector of Railways, said:  “When faced with the evidence of their failure over a number of years, both TfL and TOL accepted that they had not done everything that was reasonably practicable to ensure the safety of their passengers, with terrible consequences on the early morning of 9 November 2016.

“We must never forget the tragedy of that day, and must strive to learn all of its lessons so there can be no repetition. Our thoughts remain with those whose lives were so affected.  The judge’s remarks and the sentences imposed underline to the corporate defendants and the whole industry that their first responsibility is to ensure the safety of their passengers and staff.”

(Picture: PA)