The statement by the Health and Safety Executive on the initial findings of the inquiry into the Paddington rail disaster should be welcomed - it does not apportion blame at this stage but recognises that there has been a 'system failure'.

This does not just mean in the electro/mechanical controls of signals and trains but also in the management of safety, the relationship between the operating companies and Railtrack and also cultural inertia among railway people.

The executive director of the parliamentary advisory council for transport safety has described the industry as being 'inward looking and insensitive to criticism'. This clearly goes back a long time, well before privatisation - although the splitting up of the industry is likely to have been a significant factor which will no doubt be considered in the inquiry.

In his annual report for 1986, the chief of the Railway Inspectorate expressed concern at the number of signals passed at danger and said more needed to be done to assist the driver in the cab. Thirteen years later and despite single manning becoming the norm, higher train speeds, bi-directional use of track and increasing traffic on some routes, the problem has not been addressed.

It is to be hoped people killed near Paddington will not have died in vain and train controls appropriate to the finding of an independent risk assessment will be speedily implemented.

David Randon,

Wheldrake, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.