A TRAIN driver from York who claimed his company was “playing Russian roulette” with people’s lives because of recurrent horn failures has lost a case for unfair dismissal.

An employment tribunal yesterday threw out Perry Webb’s claim that his sacking for gross misconduct had been excessive, after a TransPennine Express (TPE) lawyer claimed the driver himself put people at risk when he failed to promptly report a horn fault on a Newcastle to York train in January last year.

The driver, who also fabricated a report claiming he had suffered a near-miss on the tracks because of mounting frustration over TPE’s inability to resolve the horn problems, was accused of “breathtaking arrogance” by the company’s legal representative, Simon Robinson.

He said Mr Webb was not an engineer, and should not have taken it upon himself to continue the journey without calling the company’s control centre to inform it of the fault and await instructions.

Mr Webb, of Tang Hall, a former health and safety representative, told the tribunal in Leeds he had twice tried to call control over his radio to report the fault but been unable to get through.

He had believed it was not convenient to call on a telephone when the train was later halted at Darlington.

Mr Webb said the horns on the company’s Class 185 trains had failed on numerous occasions during freezing weather over several years and he had reported the problems but never received any feedback, and believed he had been ignored.

He said 20 track workers had been struck and killed by trains since 1994, and claimed TPE was playing a game of Russian roulette over the horns which would eventually lead to another death.

The roulette claims were strongly disputed by the company’s operations director, Paul Watson, who conceded there had been horn problems but said attempts had been made to resolve them.

Employment judge Mr D P Burton said that had Mr Webb expressed remorse during his disciplinary hearings, and demonstrated an intention to comply with rules in future, it might be that the company would have considered some other form of disciplinary action appropriate.

“But Mr Webb came out fighting, saying the fault lay with the company,” said Mr Burton.