Paddington Rail Tragedy - Rail industry accepts full responsibility

The Railway industry today accepted full responsibility for the dreadful incident which occurred at 08.10 this morning outside Paddington Station. They said that the industry would work together to do everything to ensure there was a full investigation into the causes and that any lessons learned would be followed through immediately.

Sir Philip Beck, Chairman Railtrack PLC said "Our thoughts are with the relatives and friends of those who have died and those who have been injured in this tragic accident and we would like to assure them that we will all cooperate fully in the public inquiry. The train companies involved have sent representatives to the hospitals to offer support to the injured and we will be doing everything we can to assist anyone concerned that they might have relatives on board the two trains".

At the same time it was confirmed that claims for compensation should be forwarded to Miller Rail Claims at Macmillan House, Paddington, London W2 IFT, telephone 0171 922 6571, fax 0171 922 6578.

Earlier stories

• Death toll rises to 26 Dead in Paddington Tragedy
• Deputy PM announces public inquiry into tragic rail accident
  
• 8 confirmed dead in rush hour train collision near Paddington station
  

Web sources

• Yahoo Full Coverage
  
• Train crash: 26 dead
  BBC Online 05 Oct 99
  
• 'More dead bodies' in train wreckage
  This Is London 05 Oct 99
  
• Pictures from the rail crash
  BBC Online