An official Government report has ruled out sabotage as the cause of the Potters Bar rail disaster.

The official accident report, which was released on Thursday by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), concluded that poor maintenance was the cause of the crash despite claims by maintenance contractor Jarvis that a set of points had been tampered with.

The report reads: "No evidence has yet been established to support speculation or theories that vandalism or deliberate unauthorised interference caused the derailment."

The HSE confirmed its preliminary conclusions that missing nuts caused the points to "fail catastrophically" and that a sample inspection of points across the rail network had found differing standards in their condition and maintenance.

The Potters Bar points No 2182A are currently undergoing examinations which had "identified other differences in their condition compared to the standards expected", the report said. Further tests on the nuts of other points in the Potters Bar area showed that 20 per cent were not "fully tight".

Seven people died and dozens were injured in the May 10 crash when the 12.45 King's Cross to King's Lynn train derailed on its approach to the station with one of the four carriages becoming wedged under the station canopy.

July 4, 2002 17:00