Paddington survivors to host rail summit

Pam Warren campaigns for better rail safety

A group representing survivors of the Paddington rail crash is to host a rail summit to ensure the Cullen Inquiry's recommendations for greater rail safety are delivered in full and on time.

Organisations cited in the inquiry, which was headed by Lord Cullen, will be invited to the event in December and will be asked to sign a declaration, promising to deliver their obligations.

Recommendations include the establishment of two independent bodies - one which investigates accidents and the other to provide leadership across the industry on safety matters.

I'm going to carry on fighting...so nobody ends up like us

Pam Warren
crash survivor

Organised by the Paddington Survivors' Group, the summit is said to have the support of the Secretary of State for Transport, Stephen Byers, trade unions and the train operating companies.

Thirty-one people lost their lives when a Thames Trains commuter service went through a red light and collided with a Great Western express near London's Paddington station on 5 October 1999.

Lord Cullen's inquiry blamed a "lamentable failure" by Railtrack to respond to safety warnings before the accident.

'We will fight on'

It said the crash could probably have been prevented if rail managers had properly appreciated the risks posed by trains going through red signals.

Paddington crash survivor Pam Warren, who announced the summit, said she would fight on to make sure the recommendations are not ignored.

She said: "I'm going to carry on fighting to make sure Lord Cullen's recommendations are carried out and that nobody ends up like us.

"We're not going to let the public forget his proposals and what has or has not been achieved.

"Everyone accepted that the hidden report into the 1988 Clapham rail disaster should be implemented, but it wasn't.

Obligations

"More than one secretary of state for transport in the past 13 years has declared that an Advanced Train Protection system (ATP) should be fitted to the rail network and still it hasn't been.

"Lord Cullen must not be ignored. To do so would be to turn our backs on the dead and injured of Ladbroke Grove and Hatfield, to forget our obligation to the past and ignore our responsibility for the future."

Mrs Warren was speaking at the 2001 Women of the Year lunch, where she was honoured for her continuing campaign for better rail safety.

She has won the Frink Award, which recognises the achievements of women with disability.