Potters Bar victim speaks of difficult claim

A victim of the Potters Bar rail crash has talked to The Telegraph about her struggle to receive justice in the form of passenger compensation for the personal injuries she suffered as a result of the catastrophic 2002 train accident.

Speaking about her feelings of relief after hearing that Network Rail intended to admit safety failings which led to the crash, the 64-year-old doctor said she uttered little more than "Finally" when she heard the news.

The rail passenger lost her spleen in the train crash and went into a month-long coma after the incident. During this time her family did not know if she would recover. She had suffered a broken back, crushed femur, broken ribs and collapsed lungs, and she underwent multiple surgical procedures to help fix her injuries.

Explaining the frustrations in claiming passenger compensation she said, "They tried to argue everything.

"You felt like telling them: 'Can't you see what happened?' But no, the companies are up there, big, impersonal: everything has to be calculated. It is very, very tough."

After three years of legal wrangling the doctor received £375,000 in train accident compensation. Much of this amount had already been spent paying for timely private health care to avoid waiting in pain for NHS treatment.

In 2004 it was revealed that the firm responsible for the maintenance of the track had paid bonuses to its executives for the year in which the passenger accident occurred.

The Doctor commented, "They paid me little by little. They seem to make so much money, but are so miserly with people who are damaged."