Passenger warned of train 'lurch' prior to fatal crash

Published on Monday 21 June 2010 23:24

A WORRIED passenger was trying to raise the alarm in the hours before seven people died when a train derailed, an inquest heard yesterday.

Company boss Peter Prime told jurors the train he was travelling on "lurched" near Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, on the evening before the crash.

Mr Prime said he told a train buffet car steward of his concerns minutes after the "lurch", then made two calls the following morning in an attempt to alert train operating firm Great North Eastern Railway (GNER).

The inquest has heard that four men and three women were killed when the 12:45 London to King's Lynn train derailed as it hit faulty points south of Potters Bar station on 10 May, 2002.

"There was a very substantial lurch," Mr Prime told the inquest, in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. "I thought it was very abnormal – the first time I had ever experienced anything on a train that had seriously worried me."

He said cups and saucers slid across tables and another passenger exclaimed: "Bloody hell – what was that?"

The hearing continues and is due to end later this summer.