Croydon tram crash driver tells court docket he’s ‘deeply sorry’ and ‘in some methods I held myself accountable’

The driver within the Croydon tram catastrophe has described to jurors the second he “collapsed” when he was advised passengers had died.

Alfred Dorris additionally advised the Old Bailey “in some ways” he held himself “responsible” for the crash which killed seven passengers.

He was allegedly driving the tram at 3 times the pace he was imagined to be doing earlier than it derailed on a pointy curve at Sandilands in south London.

As nicely because the seven deaths, 19 folks had been critically injured.

The 49-year-old is on trial for failing to take “reasonable care” of the well being and security of himself and the 69 passengers on Tram 2551 on 9 November 2016.

The prosecution alleged Dorris could have had a “micro-sleep” or grow to be disorientated earlier than the crash.

On Thursday, he broke down in entrance of the victims’ households as he gave proof for the primary time.

He wiped away tears as he described being arrested and put behind a police van after the crash, having by no means been in hassle earlier than.

The married father-of-one stated: “I was told that I was being arrested for manslaughter because of multiple fatalities.

“I used to be damaged. I couldn’t consider what I used to be listening to.”

On arrival at a police station, he said: “I broke down. One of the officers form of put his hand on my shoulder, tapped me in a reassuring approach that was fairly good, to be trustworthy. I used to be taken to a police cell.”

Later, he was launched beneath investigation and took his household to remain in a lodge for 4 weeks because of the intense media curiosity within the catastrophe.

Read extra:
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On his frame of mind on the time, he stated: “I used to be simply in all places, simply damaged, disbelief at what had occurred.

“In some ways I held myself responsible for what happened. I could not explain how it happened.”

The defendant stated lighting within the tunnel on the method to the sharp flip the place the derailment occurred was “inconsistent”, and at the hours of darkness he needed to depend on his “route knowledge and experience as a driver”.

Dorris stated he received “confused” earlier than the crash however not as a consequence of an absence of focus because it had been a “normal average” day up till that time.

He went on to say how he continued to “struggle” with what occurred and reached his “lowest point” throughout the lockdown when he was unable to start out therapy for a “severe case of PTSD”, finally resulting in the breakdown of his marriage.

Asked what he would have achieved if he had felt drained earlier than a shift, he stated: “I could have just explained I was not feeling fit to work and they would sign me off.”

The court docket heard how Dorris had utilized to work on the trams in 2008 as a “stepping stone” to understand his ambition of changing into a practice driver on the railways.

Previously, he had additionally labored early shifts as a bus driver and a milkman.

In his job as a bus driver, his solely accident had been a “little scuff” with a automobile at Sloane Square on his first time out on his personal, the defendant stated.

Dorris, from Beckenham, southeast London, denies a single cost of failing to take cheap care at work beneath the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.