THE long-term consequences of the Selby train crash are now becoming clear.

After Gary Hart was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving last week, relatives of the people who lost their lives began a campaign to make driving while tired as socially unacceptable as drink-driving. That debate is already underway.

Hart's conviction drew a line under one aspect of the disaster, but other issues remain unresolved. The series of events that led to the horror at Great Heck were so convoluted, so uniquely unfortunate, that it would be a nonsense to pin the entire blame on one individual.

Since February 28, the safety of Britain's road-over-rail bridges have come in for scrutiny. It has emerged that, long before that infamous date, questions had been raised about their safety, although few of us knew that.

On these bridges, fast-moving traffic passes only yards above express railway tracks. The potential for a terrible accident is there, but because no such accident had occurred we assumed adequate safety measures were in place.

Our complacency was shattered at Great Heck. Soon after the catastrophe, the ease with which Gary Hart's Land Rover left the motorway and landed on the railway tracks became worryingly obvious. Had the road barrier been extended a hundred yards further along the carriageway, the carnage may have been avoided.

Equally, it took one of the worst disasters in North Yorkshire's history to reveal the parlous state of some of the county's road-over-rail bridges. The crash prompted county council officials to undertake an emergency safety audit of the bridges, which discovered that a third required improvements, and a handful were in dire need of repair.

The chances of another Great Heck are slim, a council officer said today. He is right. But he is also right to ignore probability theory and concentrate on getting these repairs done now.

We never want to see a repeat of those terrible scenes from a chill February morning.

Updated: 10:38 Thursday, December 20, 2001