Victims of Tebay remembered

RMT members and officials will be joined by other trade union colleagues at noon at the memorial stone and plaque erected after the tragedy off the A685, just south of the Cumbrian village.

Colin Buckley, Darren Burgess, Chris Waters and Gary Tindall were killed after a trailer loaded with 14 tons of scrap rail broke loose and careered down a 1 in 74 gradient on the West Coast main line.

The trailer reached more than 45mph and, in the dark and silently, hit a 10-strong gang of workmen employed by Carillion who were carrying out various maintenance activities.

All four who died were RMT members and six more members of the gang were injured.

Two men working for the subcontractor were later found guilty of manslaughter at Newcastle Crown Court.

Mark Connolly was jailed for nine years, reduced to seven on appeal, and Roy Kennett was jailed for two years.

RMT said: "Despite changes made by the industry since the tragedy a real risk of track workers being struck by runaway vehicles still remains.

"But now, thanks to the tireless campaign of the Tebay survivors, the RMT Lancaster branch and representatives of the union, real protection is at long last one step closer."

General secretary Bob Crow said other incidents occurring since Tebay indicated another tragedy could happen.

He said: "RMT is seriously concerned that the continued fragmentation of the industry means that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. RMT representatives have been working to secure some form of secondary protection for track workers."

Trials of specific secondary protection units have been started and are due to last five months after which a joint RMT/Network Rail report will be produced.