'A Conspiracy Or A Cock Up?' - Assembly Members Call For An Independent Investigation

'A conspiracy or a cock up?' - Assembly members call for an independent investigation into TfL's reports on the Croydon tram crash

A motion was backed by members of the London Assembly on Thursday, July 4, calling for an independent investigation into the role Transport for London (TFL) played in supplying information to Croydon tram crash investigators have been made.

Assembly member Keith Prince put forward a motion claiming that TfL failed to provide key tram safety evidence following the tragic Croydon tram crash.

The tragic crash in November 2016 left seven people dead and more than 60 others injured, after a tram derailed at Sandilands.

And earlier this year TfL blamed human error for not immediately sharing an audit on driver fatigue with investigators of the crash.

Mr Prince proposed the motion calling on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to open an independent investigation into why TfL failed to hand over vital information which could have assisted the investigators.

Today (Thursday, July 4) he said: "In reality we do not know whether it is cock up or conspiracy and that simply cannot be accepted we need a definitive answer to this and many more questions.

"We need a truly independent inquiry into this matter so it stops all the speculation around it."

The motion was seconded by assembly member for Sutton and Croydon Steve O’Connell.

But Fiona Twycross described the motion as 'political gameplaying'.

She said: "We know that off their own instigation TfL did an internal audit to examine the effectiveness of fatigue management processes at the managers FirstGroup.

"We know that they immediately informed the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and we know that they also made the British Transport Police, who are still carrying out an investigation, aware so family liaison officers could bring this to the attention of family and victims of the Sandilands incident.

"Of course there were always lessons to be learnt and TfL has held their hands up and admitted that this audit should have been immediately sent to investigators. That this didn’t happen was the result of human error."

She added that TfL has since updated its procedures so that audits of a live investigation are automatically sent on.

The motion was backed with 10 votes in favour – Labour members abstained on the vote