Gateshead Council fined after train crashes into fallen tree, injuring worker

Gateshead Council has been fined over £40,000 following failure to make adequate checks on a contractor, after a train service from Newcastle to Carlisle ploughed into a tree which had fallen on the line, injuring a worker and causing damages and costs of over £100,000 for Northern Rail and Network Rail. 

 

Peter Wood, 52, of Grange Villa, Durham, was left with a shattered ankle, a cut to the back of the head and bruising on his left arm, left thigh and right forearm, when a train travelling at 39mph careered into a tree he was trying to clear from railway tracks. 

 

Newcastle Crown Court heard on 3 July how Mr Wood’s boss Mark Connelly (trading as Practical Conservation Management) had been contacted by the council to fell two large poplar trees next to the tracks near the Tyne’s Boathouse Crossing. 

 

During the work one of the trees twisted and fell onto the railway line uprooting another tree on its way. Mr Wood was trying to help Connelly clear it from the line, but in doing so they failed to hear an oncoming train. Luckily the train was able to brake but couldn’t avoid hitting the tree, injuring Mr Wood. 

 

Mark Connelly, 42, of Calders Crescent, Fatfield, Washington, was sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £5,854 in costs. 

 

The court was told the cost to repair the train by Northern Rail was more than £97,000. A further £7,000 was incurred by Network Rail on callout, materials, machinery hire and delays to services. Network Rail had not been told about the felling operation near its line.

 

Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council of Civic Centre, Regent Terrace, Gateshead, was fined £40,000 with costs of £5,854 after pleading guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the HSWA 1974. 

 

Recorder Henry Prosser, who said the council had not deliberately shirked their responsibilities, said: “I bear in mind any fine I impose on the council has to be met by those who pay various forms of tax to the council.

 

After the case, HSE inspector Jonathan Wills, said: “Mr Wood’s painful injury and Northern Rail’s unexpected bill for almost £100,000 could all have been avoided. Mr Connelly should have been able to determine that the large poplar trees represented a challenge which he was not really qualified to deal with safely and that the site presented factors which meant that special measures should have been taken.

 

“The decision to fell a mature poplar tree on a steep slope within falling distance of an active railway line without informing Network Rail and not using a precautionary winch was indicative of Mr Connelly’s poor planning.

 

“It is vital that as part of the risk assessment surrounding hazards, such as railway lines or overhead power lines are identified, and controls put in place to reduce the risk of the trees being felled towards them.”