UK News 07-10-1999 who: Train Driver Michael Hodder what: where: PADDINGTON when: Yesterday snippet: "A rookie train driver who passed his test just eight weeks ago was blamed last night for the Paddington rail disaster," says The Star. "Michael Hodder, 31, who was killed in the carnage, ignored two amber warning lights before steering his Thames Train through a red stop sign and smashing into a packed Inter-City express." Hodder, a 31-year-old father of two from Reading, Berkshire, had qualified two months ago after an 11 month training period. Elsewhere, The Star accuses "fat cat" rail companies of putting profit before safety by failing to implement a braking system invented ten years ago. "Now angry union bosses are threatening to strike if the hugely expensive Automatic Train Protection system is not installed." Railtrack officials have confirmed that all signals on the line were in full working order, and that signal 109 at Ladbroke Grove was at red. "After passing it," writes Stuart Millar in The Guardian, "the Thames train reached an intersection where the points were set against it, but the weight of the train forced them open and it ploughed into the express with an impact speed of 120mph." [... more]

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