THE RAILWAY Safety Commission is considering prosecutions for neglect of duty against a number of parties connected with the collapse of the Malahide Viaduct, its new chief executive Gerald Beesley revealed yesterday.
Mr Beesley was responding to members of the Oireachtas Committee on transport, who said his organisation had “failed” to ensure safety on the railway, was too trusting of what it was told by Iarnród Éireann, and had not physically inspected the Malahide Viaduct which collapsed on August 21st, 2009, as an Iarnród Éireann passenger train crossed. The train driver reported a section of the viaduct beginning to collapse into Broadmeadow Estuary, and within minutes one of the piers holding up the track, pier number four, had collapsed leaving unsupported track hanging over the sea.
Fine Gael committee member Fergus O’Dowd said a key aspect of the report of the Railway Accident Investigation Unit was criticism of the commission for “closing off” a recommendation for a tidal “flood/scour management plan” which had been made in safety reviews in 2001, 2006 and 2008. He said a 2008 report had identified “a 60 per cent risk” to the bridge. Since then thousands of passengers crossing the estuary had been put in danger.
Committee chairman Paul Connaughton (FG) said Iarnród Éireann had given a “very strong” performance when asked about its safety record. Mr Beesley said the commission had been set up in 2005 but its ability to physically inspect infrastructure had not been added until 2008. He said it was considering prosecutions.
