ON THE third anniversary of the Tebay rail disaster, a union representing UK rail workers is calling for an end to the use of sub-contractors for rail renewal work.

The RMT says that, in the three years since a flat-bed truck carrying rails killed four men working on the line at Tebay, there have been ten similar incidents around the country involving vehicles operated by private sector companies.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "There could have been ten more Tebays in the three years since our four members were killed on February 15, 2004.

"Track renewals are still dependent on a dangerous myriad of contractors, sub-contractors and one-man-and-a-trolley outfits, and despite our incessant demands for action the situation remains just as it was in February 2004.

"It is a disgrace that it is only luck that has prevented further unnecessary carnage and, for all we know, the ten reported runaways are probably just the tip of the iceberg.

"Network Rail has already made its maintenance safer and more efficient by bringing it back in-house, and they now need to complete the job and bring renewals back in-house too," said Mr Crow.

Gary Tindall, 46, of Tebay; Colin Buckley, 49, and Darren Burgess, 30, both of Carnforth; and Chris Waters, 53, of Morecambe, were killed when the flat-bed trolley carrying replacement track rolled four miles from Scout Green Depot, north of Tebay, before hitting the men as they worked on the West Coast Main Line just south of the village.

Mark Connolly, 44, of Anglesey, North Wales, was jailed for nine years and Roy Kennett, 29, of Maidstone, Kent, received two years imprisonment after being convicted of four counts of manslaughter and health and safety breaches.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch is also carrying out an investigation into a runaway truck on the Settle-Carlisle line at Armathwaite on January 28 when a flat-bed wagon, which was stationed at an engineering site, started to move down a hill.

A member of staff observed the runaway and tried to apply the brakes without success, and then warned other staff in the vicinity, who stood clear of the track. After running approximately 500 metres, the wagon collided with a road rail excavator at low speed and derailed. No one was hurt.

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "Workforce safety has improved enormously over the past few years and there have been no fatal accidents involving runaway trailers since the terrible tragedy at Tebay some three years ago.

"Lessons were learned from Tebay and a myriad of new rules and restrictions have been imposed to make the railway a safer place to work. In the past three years Network Rail has almost halved the accident frequency rate of its workforce and now has one of the best railway workforce safety records in Europe," he added.