NETWORK Rail has apologised "unreservedly" to the family of a man who died in a "wholly avoidable" accident at the rail depot in Eastleigh.

Railway worker Kevin Mauger was crushed by a six-tonne track during an unplanned deep clean of a welding machine. He died at the scene.

His employer Network Rail was fined £1.2m at Southampton Magistrates' Court on Tuesday over a number of health and safety failings that led to the 53-year-old's death. 

Now the company has apologised to his family acknowledging that no fine will ever make up for their loss. 

Network Rail managing director of route services, Robert Morton, said: "On behalf of Network Rail, I apologise unreservedly to the family and friends of Mr Mauger, for our failures and the tragedy they continue to live with every day.

"There is no mitigation or size of fine that will make up for the loss they have suffered."

In an emotional statement, Mr Mauger's wife, Rachael, said the tragic accident on November 30, 2020 meant his husband never got to meet his youngest grandson who was born the day after he died.

"This has completely devastated our son," she said.

She described her husband - a father-of-five and grandfather-of-eight - as "the core of our family".

Before the accident at the Long Welded Rail Depot off Dutton Lane, Mr Mauger was cleaning the inside of a butt-welding machine – a machine that welds two sections of rail tracks together.

As the machine’s conveyor system was on the wrong setting, a section of rail track entered the machine while Kevin was inside. 

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found Network Rail failed to ensure there was a safe system of work while carrying out maintenance on its rail production line. It also failed to provide an adequate risk assessment for this type of maintenance.

Inspector Amanda Huff said: “This tragic accident was wholly avoidable, caused by the failure of the company to implement safe systems of work.

“There were no written isolation procedures in place when they were working on this highly dangerous piece of machinery and the risk assessment for carrying out maintenance was inadequate – it failed to identify suitable and sufficient control measures.

“This accident could have been avoided if there had been robust isolation procedures in place but tragically this was not the case.”