The Southall rail crash occurred on 19 September 1997, on the Great Western Main Line at Southall, West London. An InterCity 125 high speed passenger train (HST) failed to slow down in response to warning signals and collided with a freight train crossing its path, causing seven deaths and 139 injuries. The passenger train operating company had failed to inform Railtrack and the signaller that the automatic warning system (AWS), which warns drivers of adverse signals, had been turned off in the cab of the HST. As a result, the signaller set a route which would stop the HST and allow the freight train to cross in front of it. If the signaller had known that the AWS in the express was not working, he would have been prevented by the operating rules from setting a conflicting route. The HST driver did not apply the brakes until it was too late because he was packing his bag and did not see the cautionary signals. He was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence, but the charges were later dropped. Great Western Trains, whose managing director survived the crash in one of the most badly affected carriages, was fined for failure to ensure that the HST had their automatic warning system working during long journeys. Accident The collision occurred as the 10:32 Great Western Trains (GWT) InterCity 125 HST returned from Swansea toward London Paddington. The train was formed of Class 43 power car 43173, eight Mark 3 carriages, and power car 43163. The driver at the time of the collision, Larry Harrison, boarded the train at Cardiff. Earlier that day, the HST's previous driver, James Tunnock, had found a fault with the Automatic Warning System (AWS) that prevented the brakes from releasing. In response, he isolated (disabled) the AWS at 06:00 but did not report the failure to the signaller and to Railtrack as was required to enable extra signalling precautions. A fault with the AWS in the London-end power car had also been reported on the previous day, but testing at the OOC Maintenance Depot overnight failed to reveal any fault, and the train was passed for service. As the HST approached Southall East Junction, the driver failed to heed two warning signals (a double yellow followed by a single yellow) without slowing the train down, and only reacted by applying the emergency brake when the red danger signal came