'Sabotaged' rail wagon killed four, court told

With no working brakes, the wagon - laden with 16 tonnes of steel railway track - ran away down a slope and hit a group of maintenance workers, killing four.

The men were killed when the runaway wagon ran into them at about 40mph on a section of the West Coast Main Line near Tebay, Cumbria, almost two years ago.

Mark Connolly and Roy Kennett are accused of four counts of manslaughter.

Opening the case for the Crown, Robert Smith QC told the jury at Newcastle Crown Court that both defendants were grossly negligent.

He said Mr Connolly had deliberately disconnected the hydraulic brakes on two wagons, while Mr Kennett had operated the wagons knowing they were faulty.

''These two men took a deliberate risk to use these trailers for railway operations,'' Mr Smith told the court.

In the case of Mr Connolly, he dismantled the brakes for ''financial gain'' because it was cheaper than repairing the wagons properly.

Mr Smith said: ''The prosecution say these two men were grossly negligent in doing what they did to such a degree that they are guilty of the charge of manslaughter.''

Mr Connolly, 44, of Coedana, Llanerchymedd, Anglesey, North Wales, and Kennett, 28, of Hollingbourne, Maidstone, Kent, both deny four counts of manslaughter.

Mr Connolly also denies three counts of breaching health and safety laws, and Mr Kennett denies one count.

Mr Smith said Mr Connolly was the boss of MAC Machinery Services, which was subcontracted to work for rail maintenance giant Carillion.

Carillion was working with Network Rail to replace and upgrade the UK rail network and had contracted Mr Connolly's firm to help.

Mr Connolly had driven a low-loader truck with a railway crane and two wagons to Scout Green in Cumbria to lift ageing track from the West Coast Main Line on to railway wagons.

Shortly before 6am on February 15, 2004, Mr Kennett, an employee of MAC Machinery Services, began using the large crane - known as a road rail vehicle (RRV) - to lift lengths of steel on to the wagons.

While he worked, Mr Connolly slept in the back of his lorry, the court heard.

Mr Smith told the jury Mr Connolly had deliberately disconnected the brakes on the two wagons because both the hydraulic systems were in such a bad way they would not work properly in conjunction with the crane.

Mr Connolly then filled the cables connecting the wagons to the crane - usually full of hydraulic brake fluid - with ball bearings, giving the impression to an onlooker that everything was above board, the court heard.

His actions led to the chain of events in which four railway workers died. They were: Colin Buckley, 49, of Carnforth, Lancashire; Darren Burgess, 30, also of Carnforth; Chris Waters, 53, of Morecambe, Lancashire; and Gary Tindall, 46, of Tebay.

Mr Smith told the jury Mr Kennett had placed wooden chocks under the wheels of the two wagons because he wanted to ensure they did not move as he unloaded the rails.

As he began unloading the second wagon it began to roll down the track, having rolled over the chocks.

Both Mr Kennett and his supervisor Danny Jones frantically tried to stop it getting away but to no avail.

The wagon, which weighed a total of 19 tonnes, came out of the morning darkness and hit the gang of railway workers at about 40mph.

Four of the men died almost instantly, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

Their families, sitting in the public gallery, broke down in tears as the prosecutor said they suffered massive injuries, including loss of limbs, when they were struck by the runaway wagon. The noise from an on-site generator meant the track gang had no warning about their pending fate, Mr Smith said.

''The workers had no warning or any chance of a warning,'' he told the jury.

''Those at the scene who survived or were killed were taken completely by surprise.''

The case continues.