 A NORTH Wales rail contractor charged with the manslaughter of four workers pointed the finger of blame at everyone but himself, a court was told yesterday. Anglesey man Mark Connolly is accused of "butchering" the hydraulic brake system on two three-tonne flatbed trailers in a bid to save money. Instead, he filled the tubes with ball bearings, disconnected the hydraulics and used wooden chocks to stop the wagon moving. But laden with 16 tonnes of steel railway track it overran the chocks, travelling almost four miles down the track before running into the four workers. Colin Buckley, 49, and Darren Burgess, 30, of Carnforth, Lancashire, Chris Waters, 53, of Morecambe, Lancashire, and Gary Tindall, 46, of Tebay, Cumbria, were all killed in the tragedy. They were all working on a section of the West Coast Main Line at Tebay in February 2004 when the wagon crashed into them at around 40mph. The jury at Newcastle Crown Court was told 44-year-old Connolly and coaccused Roy Kennett, 28 were "grossly negligent". Connolly of Coedana, Llanerchymedd, and Kennett, of Hollingbourne, Maidstone, Kent, both deny four counts of manslaughter. |
