FOUR railway workers were killed by a runaway wagon because a contractor sabotaged the brakes to save money, a court was told yesterday.
The wagon was being loaded with 16 tonnes of old steel track at a maintenance depot when, without working brakes, it began slipping down a slope.
It was travelling at 40mph when it smashed into the men working on a closed section of the West Coast Main Line four miles away, in darkness, near the village of Tebay, Cumbria.
Mark Connolly, 44, of Llanerchymedd, Anglesey, and Roy Kennett, 28, of Maidstone, Kent, had been lifting the old track on to the wagon at the Scout Green depot. They both deny manslaughter. Mr Connolly also denies three counts of breaching health and safety laws and Mr Kennett one charge. Robert Smith, QC, for the prosecution, told the jury at Newcastle Crown Court that Mr Connolly had disconnected the hydraulic brakes while his colleague was operating them, knowing that they were faulty and would not allow the crane to operate properly. They had taken a “deliberate risk” to continue using them.
Mr Smith said that Mr Connolly, who ran MAC Machinery Services, had done so for financial gain because it was cheaper than repairing the wagons properly. “These two men were grossly negligent in doing what they did to such a degree that they are guilty of manslaughter,” he added.
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The tragedy happened on February 15, 2004, as the men upgraded the main line. Carillion, the rail maintenance company, had subcontracted Mr Connolly’s company to help in the operation.
He had driven a low-loader truck with a railway crane and two wagons to the depot to help with disposing of the ageing track. At the time the wagon slipped from its coupling Mr Connolly had been sleeping in the lorry while Mr Kennett, an employee, used the crane to lift the lengths of steel.
Mr Smith said: “Instead of repairing the trucks and the crane Mr Connolly devised the simple but grossly irresponsible practice of dismantling these brakes.”
“This was not, say the prosecution, a common accident. The braking system of the trailer had been deliberately dismantled prior to the accident by Mr Connolly. Roy Kennett knew this. These two men took a deliberate decision to use the trailer and, in so doing, they deliberately exposed railways workers to serious risk”.
The four men who died were Colin Buckley, 49, and Darren Burgess, 30, both of Carnforth, Lancashire, Chris Waters, 53, of Morecambe, Lancashire, and Gary Tindall, 46, of Tebay, Cumbria. The trial continues.