Two New Zealand families will next week mark the 10th anniversary of the loss of their sons in a British rail crash.
At 8.11am on October 5, 1999, New Zealanders Allan Stewart (28) and Matthew Macaulay (27) were among 31 people killed when a Railtrack commuter train ran a red light and smashed into a Great Western express near Paddington in October 1999.
Both young men had been taking the train to their jobs in London.
A year later, there was another train crash at Hatfield on October 17, 2000, which killed another UK-resident New Zealander, Rob Alcorn (37), when a London-Leeds GNER East Coast express derailed when the train derailed at 180kmh on the northern outskirts of London.
Pete and Diana Macaulay decided a couple of years later to buy a bach at Matapouri Bay in Northland as a memorial to their son -- the Matt Memorial Bach -- paying for it with compensation insurers St Paul handed them for his death.
Today they said they will not be attending commemorative events in London on the anniversary, though their daughter Rachel and her partner Gavin and son would be there.
The Paddington Survivors' Group will holding a low-key event at the memorial stone near Sainsbury's in Ladbroke Grove close to the site of the crash.
"I will take October 5 off work, and at some stage during the day, Di, Jessie (the family dog) and I will visit Matt's grave," Mr Macauley said.
"Not a day goes by without a thought and twinge of pain for the loss of a remarkable young man," he said. "Rachel and Ben share the pain from missing their brother". He asked, in a statement, for people to think on Monday of the families and friends of the dead and those injured, and for those that caused the disaster.
"We sometimes consider what Matthew might be doing now aged 36," he said ."For us, though he will always be in his twenties".
The couple at one stage moved to the UK to address the issues that caused the train collision, which not only killed 31 people but injured hundreds, and Mrs Macaulay worked with British Transport Police, helping to train family liaison and body recovery teams.
They invested in Railtrack shares so they could attend its meetings, followed every detail of the public inquiry, pushed Railtrack toward an apology, and fought for compensation.
The family won an undisclosed amount of compensation -- average payouts were reported to be about Stg200,000 ($NZ454,442 in today's dollars).
Prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to file manslaughter or corporate manslaughter charges in connection with the collision.
Thames Trains, who employed the driver that ran a red light, was fined Stg2 million, after admitting breaches in health and safety law, in 2004, and in 2007, Network Rail, the successor to Railtrack -- the company in charge of maintaining Britain's railways in 1999 -- was fined four million pounds after it also admitted health and safety blunders.
Automatic train braking systems have now been installed, which would have prevented the crash.
The service did lay manslaughter charge against senior rail managers involved in the 2000 Hatfield crash that killed Mr Alcorn a commercial pilot from Auckland, and three other people.
But in July 2005 a British judge dismissed those manslaughter charges, but fined the company responsible for the maintenance of the Hatfield section -- Balfour Beatty - was fined 10 million pounds for health and safety breaches.
A further Stg3.5 million fine for the Hatfield crash was levied against Network Rail.
