Croydon tram crash operators ordered to pay nearly £500,000

The operators in charge of the Croydon tram that crashed killing seven people have been ordered to pay nearly £500,000 ahead of their sentencing.

The tram carrying 69 people derailed near Sandilands station on the morning of November 9, 2016, killing seven and injuring many more.

Transport for London (TfL) and Tram Operations Limited (TOL) both accepted failures in their health and safety duties.

Earlier today, Mr Justice Fraser ordered the companies to each pay £234,404 in costs to the prosecuting authority, the Office of Rail and Road.

The court heard that the tram was going three times the 20kph speed limit when it derailed on a sharp corner.

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.

Prosecutor Jonathan Ashley-Norman told the court there were “missed opportunities” over the years to take a closer look at the Sandilands curve but action was not taken.

The operators accepted the level of harm in the case was high but argued their culpability was on a “medium” level.

They disputed the derailment was inevitable, arguing nothing like it had occurred on the network over 16 years before.

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.

Mr Justice Fraser is expected to hand the operators substantial fines at the sentencing tomorrow at the Old Bailey.

Pictured top: The scene after a tram overturned in Croydon in November 2016 (Picture: PA)