Hi Kenny and everybody.
Kenny, it could be that this phone call (if it actually took place) may alleviate the driver from some of the responsibility for this accident. If the control room personnel initiated the phone call then they may well have to carry quite a high percentage of the responsibility for what happened while that call was taking place.
With highly sophisticated modern tracking systems for commercial vehicles (and I would think railway power cars were no different) the control room personnel known as traffic controllers in Britain would have been well aware of exactly where the train was and if it was stationary or travelling when they initiated the call to the driver. There probably would be a standing instruction to all train crew to respond immediately to any communication from the control centre.
Should the foregoing be correct the driver may well argue that he was distracted in his concentration by the telephone call while controlling the train and it was this that was a large contributing factor in the accident. Therefore the telephone call (if there was any) may go in part to alleviating at least a considerable percentage of his responsibility for this tragedy.
I draw evidence for the above on a case my own company was involved in where an HGV driver crossed a junction and collided with a car. The driver had disciplinary action taken against him by his employers and was dismissed. At the industrial tribunal which followed the driver advised that his cab phone started to ring just as he was approaching the junction and although he did not answer it distracted his concentration enough for him to have made the mistake at the junction. He also argued that as the company tracking system allowed the traffic controllers to have sufficient knowledge to know he was driving at the time they initiated the call, they should not in the interest of safety have tried to contact him at that time.
The driver won the case at the tribunal and received a substantial amount in compensation.
Bill
Posted from the Manchester to Plymouth HST service on approach to Bristol @ 21:05
