The driver in the Croydon tram crash that killed seven people has been found not guilty of failing to take reasonable care of his passengers.
Alfred Dorris, 49, was acquitted by a jury at the Old Bailey of health and safety offences in the 2016 crash. The tram derailed at a sharp corner when travelling at three times the speed limit.
The unanimous verdict was reached after less than two hours of deliberation, in the prosecution brought by the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, against the driver and transport companies involved.
The ORR also prosecuted the operators of the track and the tram service, Transport for London and the First Group-owned Tram Operations Limited (TOL). Both pleaded guilty to health and safety failings earlier in the case, in 2022, and will be sentenced at a later date.
Prosecutors had alleged that Dorris was paying insufficient attention, possibly due to a “micro-sleep”, when the crash occurred in the early morning of 9 November 2016, which seriously injured 21 passengers as well as causing the seven fatalities.
The court had been told that Dorris, of Beckenham, south London, was driving the tram at 70kph (42mph), more than three times the 20kph speed limit, when the tram derailed.
However, a similar incident had occurred just over a week earlier on the service with another driver, jurors were told.
Dorris denied he had a “micro-sleep” and said he became disoriented in the tunnel on approach to the curve – blaming a combination of external factors including poor lighting and signage around the tunnel, darkness and bad weather.
Dorris, who had been excused from attending a 2021 inquest because of post-traumatic stress, apologised to the victims’ families and survivors as he spoke publicly for the first time about the crash while giving tearful evidence at the Old Bailey.
He said: “I’m a human being and sometimes as a human being things happen to you that you are not in control of. I’m sorry that I became disorientated. I’m sorry I was not able to do anything to stop myself from becoming disorientated.
“And I’m deeply sorry I was not able to do anything to reorientate myself and stop the tram from turning over. I’m deeply sorry.”
Survivors described being “flung” about as if in a washing machine as the tram rolled over. Dorris was found in his cabin with his eyes shut and one passenger called for him to “wake up”.
In court, Dorris broke down as he recalled the moments before the crash. He said: “It was like I went into shock. I could not do anything. I wanted to reach for the brake but at that stage the tram was already going over and I was thrown out of the chair and I could not do anything.
“I can remember being thrown from the chair to the side of the cabin and my shoulder took the impact and I hit the side of my head on the side of the cabin.”
Prosecutor Jonathan Ashley-Norman KC told jurors: “Whether by virtue of a micro-sleep, or by virtue of becoming disorientated in some other way, or a combination of the two, Mr Dorris failed to attend to the most basic of requirements of a driver of a passenger vehicle, namely remaining alert and attentive at the controls.”
Dorris was described as having an “impeccable” past record and was seen as one of the better drivers. The court was told of the previous “near-miss” on the service, where Dorris’s defence barrister, Miles Bennett, said a passenger had “genuinely feared for their safety”.
Accident investigators in 2017 found that another tram had come close to overturning nine days earlier, while drivers warned that they needed to brake heavily when approaching the bend.
The Old Bailey jurors were not told of the findings of the 2021 inquest, which ruled that the deaths were accidental. The inquest’s narrative verdict also found that the tram’s operator TOL had failed to account for the risk of a high-speed derailment, or create a “just culture” at the firm that would allow drivers to report health and safety concerns.
The people who died were Dane Chinnery, 19, Philip Seary, 57, Dorota Rynkiewicz, 35, Robert Huxley, 63, and Philip Logan, 52, all from New Addington, and Donald Collett, 62, and Mark Smith, 35, both from Croydon.
Some relatives of the victims were in court, while others attended by video link from Croydon.
The granddaughter of Philip Logan, Danielle Wynne, said the verdict was “deflating”, adding: “There has to be some kind of accountability. As far as I’m concerned, accident or not, he’s taken no accountability for his actions that morning.”
The ORR said: “We conducted an extensive, detailed and thorough investigation and took the decision to prosecute TfL, TOL and driver Alfred Dorris for what we believed to be serious health and safety failings.
“We note the decision reached and will consider this appropriately. Our thoughts remain with those affected by the tragedy.”
