Driver's Conviction Appealed

[Coxster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6481287.stm

Train crash conviction appealed

Five people died and more than 80 were injured in the train crash
A train driver involved in a fatal rail crash 18 years ago is to challenge his conviction for manslaughter.

The accident involved the Littlehampton to Victoria train, driven by Robert Morgan, 64, from Ferring, West Sussex, and a Horsham to Victoria service.

Judges sitting in the Court of Appeal ruled Morgan's case was "arguable".

He was sentenced at the Old Bailey in September 1990 to 18 months in jail, of which 12 were suspended, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter.

'Human factors'

His sentence was later reduced to four months on appeal.

Morgan's case centres on whether he would have felt constrained to plead guilty if what is now known about the causes of railway accidents was known at the time of his trial, and whether such information would have persuaded a jury to acquit him.

The appeal court judges said they had heard detailed submissions about infrastructure and human factors which may cause or contribute to an accident.

The court also heard evidence, previously not available, that the signal at the centre of the case "had been passed when on red" on four previous occasions between 1984 and 1987, and again in June 1991.

Fresh evidence to be presented at the forthcoming full appeal includes an expert's opinion that the driver made an error which was a consequence of the infrastructure design.

'Great public interest'

It will say that the root cause of the Purley crash was the "state of the infrastructure which existed at the time of the incident".

Lord Justice Maurice Kay said: "That conclusion is based to a significant extent on the evidence of the four incidents that preceded the crash in March 1989."

One of the reasons it was "appropriate" to give leave to appeal "so that the matter can be fully considered on another occasion" was the "great public interest" relating to such cases, he said.

Afterwards, Morgan's solicitor, Gary Rubin, said: "Mr Morgan is delighted that he has been granted leave to have his case heard by the Court of Appeal.

"We are now concentrating on fully preparing for the appeal hearing."

The appeal will be heard at a date to be fixed.

 

[ChrisCooper]

All things considered, he deserves to have the conviction removed, since manslaughter suggests deliberate action, usually gross negligance, yet there is nothing to suggest that was the case. I think he is the only driver to have been convicted for manslaughter after a train crash, although the fact that drivers often don't survive has an influence on that (there have been crashes where driver negligance has been a factor, but the driver has been killed). Quite a few signallers have had manslaughter charges though. I'm not sure about other staff. Whatever the circumstances though, manslaughter should only be givern if there is deliberate negligance (say a driver was deliberatly driving well over the limit to gain back time, or deliberatly bypassed safety systems), not for mistakes. Even so, it's very questionable if it's in the public interest for their to be prison terms in these cases, since even an incompetant worker isn't a danger to society as long as they arn't allowed to carry on doing the same job (or any other safery critical job). Then again, to say we're all human and we all make mistakes, we tend to take a very harsh view on those who's mistakes cost lives. It's ironic that the same judges who imprison people for mistakes often make fatal errors themselves when it comes to releasing murderers who then kill again.