Remaining Questions From the Sandilands Croydon Tram Crash

Six and a half years after the Sandilands Croydon tram crash, the victims and families of the seven people who died finally received a measure of justice. As chair of the TfL board's Safety Panel at the time, I offer my sincere condolences and apologies: we all failed you.

It is in my opinion entirely correct that Transport for London and FirstGroup plc should pay substantial fines, £10m and £4m respectively. As Mr Justice Fraser, the presiding judge, pointed out: "This was undoubtedly an accident waiting to happen". It was also correct for the driver, Alfred Dorris to be acquitted last month.

However, there are still questions to be answered:

1) Now that TfL and First Group's negligence has been established in law, a new inquest must be held. The "accidental death" finding of the first inquest was a travesty.

2) TfL and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan's years-long attempt to cover up the scale of negligence must be investigated. There were audits going back to 2014 which showed an endemic fatigue problem among drivers. There was a fatigue audit I ordered executives to send to the police, which was not sent. There was a fatigue audit being undertaken on the Croydon Tram the week before the crash, which was cancelled by management without telling the Safety Panel or even the Audit Committee of the Board.

3) How can it be that during all the legal proceedings - the inquest, the trial of the driver, the ORR sentencing hearing - the two senior executives responsible for the tram at TfL and First Group, Leon Daniels OBE and John Rymer, never had to testify? Do they not owe it to the surviving victims and the families of the deceased to explain how things could go so terribly wrong on their watch, and so many warning signs be ignored?

4) London's bus services are contracted out to private companies under the exact same arrangements as were in place at the time of the tram crash. Since 2016, TfL buses have been involved in 65 deaths - that is nine Sandilands. No enquiry. No accountability. How can that be?

Read more about the Old Bailey sentencing hearing at which the two companies were fined here:
https://lnkd.in/dGxcptkG