Grayrigg inquest: Engineer 'forgot' to inspect track

A network rail engineer broke down as he told an inquest he forgot to inspect the points which caused the Grayrigg train crash in Cumbria.

David Lewis said he was "under pressure" at work when he failed to patrol a section of the West Coast Main Line five days before the crash.

He told the hearing at Kendal he felt like a man "spinning plates on sticks".

Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, was travelling on a Virgin Pendolino which left the track in February 2007.

The hearing was told how the day after the crash, Mr Lewis told his manager that the failure to patrol the stretch of line was "down to me, it was my responsibility".

The inquest jury also heard how Mr Lewis and his team were "unstaffed" and "under pressure" and their work was "not entirely compliant".

Mrs Masson died and 88 people were injured when the train was derailed two seconds after travelling over the points at more than 90mph at 20:11 GMT on 23 February 2007.

Earlier the inquest was told how Mr Lewis sent an email to his bosses one year before the crash, in which he described the inspection system as a "shambles".

Mr Lewis said in his email: "It's time for the hierarchy to stop ducking the issue and sort this shambles out once and for all... ensuring the infrastructure is now safe and fit for purpose is now virtually impossible."

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