By NAOMI LARKIN
Angus Stewart lost his son in the 1999 Paddington train crash. Now his fight for justice has cost him his health, business and home.
The 55-year-old has made five trips to Britain since his beloved son Allan was killed when two packed commuter trains collided near Paddington train station in London in October 1999.
But he is now too broke to take up an invitation from Prince Charles to attend a special ceremony in London today to honour the crash victims' families and those who helped at the accident site.
"There's no funding been given for me to go back and I just can't afford to," said Mr Stewart.
It is a bitter blow for Mr Stewart, who sold his Howick restaurant, his Manurewa home and amassed thousands of dollars of debt to attend the disaster inquiry - in the hope that it would prevent other families from facing the anguish he and his wife, Christine, have suffered since Allan's death.
"The money I have spent is just to make sure that other families don't go through what I'm going through. To let them know that there are people who will just not lie down and accept. You've got to fight for it.
"They [train companies] make millions of dollars worth of profits but they go lax on safety for the clientele."
Through a lawyer in London, Mr Stewart is suing Thames Trains, Great Western and Railtrack, the company which maintains Britain's railway network.
"It was their negligence that caused the crash. It wasn't an accident, it was a crash."
Other families were taking similar legal action, he said.
Allan Stewart, 28, formerly of Auckland, was taking the train to his accounting job in London when the Thames Trains commuter service on its way out of Paddington jumped a red light and smashed into the incoming Great Western service, killing 31 people and injuring 400.
Also among those killed in the crash was fellow New Zealander Matthew MacAulay, aged 26, of Kohimarama.
Mr Stewart was devastated by his son's death. A heart attack followed and he remains in counselling. He and Mrs Stewart moved to Wellington last year.
"We just couldn't live in Auckland any longer. That's where my son was brought up. He had spent every Christmas with us."
Mr Stewart - who also has an adopted son - flew to London with his wife immediately after the crash. They were at the memorial service a year later, followed by the three separate inquiry hearings, only one of which Mrs Stewart was able to attend.
At the inquiries Mr Stewart listened to survivors describe how passengers were incinerated in a fireball that tore through the carriages of the Great Western express. He heard how temperatures reached more than 1000 degrees when his son's first-class carriage was engulfed in flames.
"I've not had a chance to grieve for my son yet because of the ongoing onslaught of this investigation."
Mr Stewart said he knew the trips would cost him dearly as they were for two to three weeks at a time and included accommodation costs, but he had to know the full story.
"The inquest has been long and drawn out. I can understand why they had to break it up. It's something you don't want to sit through."
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