Grayrigg Public Enquiry

yes, i just saw that. That was like, 4 1/2 years ago? Surely these things ought to be done while the iron is hot, so to speak, and the evidence can be examined & so on. Makes no sense at all. Anyway, didn't the RAIB investigate it in the customary fashion? Why is this needed at all?

 

It's an inquest, not an inquiry.

Still, there doesn't seem to be much of a point to it as the RAIB investigation should answer everything.

 

Search me. It strikes me as rather pointless considering it was nearly 5 years ago, and a full RAIB investigation was conducted.

 

The cause of death, same as inquests normally do. Its nothing to do with the railway, apart from the crash being the cause. Not sure why its taken so long to start tho'.

No, really? 2007 came after 2000 and 2002? Well I never.

 

Its not an enquiry, its an INQUEST into the death of Mrs Masson.

 

Any unnatural death has to be examined by a Coroner's Court.

The delay will be due to the RAIB investigation, as that provides a detailed examination of the circumstances surrounding the death of the passenger. It should be something of a formality, the only decision to make is whether it is misadventure or something more serious, given the circumstances that led to the derailing of the train.

Perhaps a Mod could amend the misleading thread title?

 

that was published, it says, in '08; what have they been doing all the time since then? is it just that they have that much of a backlog?

 

The courts don't sit that frequently, over 12 months after the event is not uncommon. Backlog of cases and having to find juries.

 

If there were fears of something more serious, leaving it 4 1/2 years would hardly seem to be the most efficient way of deciding that, would it? If the system really is this inefficient perhaps it might be useful to hold an inquiry into that.

 

Coroner's counts are quite overstretched and nothing's likely to be done about it in the current climate. This inquest will probably have been "queued" around about the time the RAIB report was published. It's taken this long to reach the front of that queue.

The inquest will officially document the cause of death and return a verdict. They are a legal requirement in all deaths outside of certain types of medical/hospital care. In cases like this they are little more than a formality, but in some cases they can lead to murder enquiries, health and safety prosecutions or civil action. They are an important (although rather neglected) part of our legal system.