Croydon tram crash driver denies he was asleep

Alfred Dorris was allegedly driving at three times the correct speed

The man who was driving a tram that crashed in Croydon, killing seven people, has denied being asleep before or at the time of the crash.

Alfred Dorris, 49, was allegedly going three times the speed he was supposed to before his tram derailed on a sharp curve at Sandilands in south London.

He is on trial at the Old Bailey over the November 2016 crash.

He told the jury: "It just went horribly wrong for me."

'Disorientated'

Under cross-examination, he repeatedly insisted that he did not fall asleep when driving the tram that day.

He added that he did not believe fatigue had contributed to what he described as a "confused" and "disorientated" state that left him believing he was travelling the other direction on the track.

Prosecutor Jonathan Ashley-Norman KC asked Mr Dorris whether he had failed to take reasonable care of his passengers.

The defendant said: "I turned up for work that morning as a professional driver as I always do. It just went horribly wrong for me. It's not for me to say if I did or didn't."

Tram 2551 was en route from New Addington to Wimbledon via East Croydon when it crashed

Pressed again by the prosecutor if he might have been disorientated from having been asleep, Mr Dorris said: "No, I wasn't asleep. I was disorientated."

Asked how long he felt that way, he said: "I have no idea. I don't know what happened to me. I don't know the duration, whether it was a second, several seconds or less.

"It felt like it just came and it went."

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Mr Dorris described how at the time he felt the disorientation had passed.

"I thought I was OK," he said and added that he then believed he was heading for Lloyd Park, and not the curve at Sandilands, and so did not feel he needed to immediately apply the brakes.

He said there were no warning signs for the disorientation, saying "it just crept up" on him.

Mr Dorris, from Beckenham, south-east London, denies a single charge of failing to take reasonable care at work under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

The trial continues.

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