He was struck by an oncoming train while trying to cross the track.

The force of the collision propelled him into the path of another train travelling in the opposite direction.

Left to grieve after his death on July 18 2001 were Mr Kassim's widow, Sade, and the couple's three children aged 12, seven and six.

Mr Kassim, known as Adedoyin to his wife and Larry to his friends, was acting as a lookout for the maintenance crew shortly before the tragedy.

But he was ordered to "stand down" after three out of four rails had been tested for defects, the High Court heard on Tuesday.

Rigorous testing was being carried out as rail operators around the country desperately checked for signs of "cracks" on the line in the wake of the Hatfield tragedy,the court was told.

Had the case gone to trial, Mrs Kassim's lawyers would have alleged negligence by his superiors in imposing too heavy a burden of work on her husband.

By the time of his death, Mr Kassim was said to have worked a 46-day stint - with only one day's respite - due to the pressing need to check the rail network.

Mrs Kassim sought damages from Primat Recruitment Ltd, Amec Rail Ltd and Network Rail Plc.

All three companies denied liability, maintaining they were "not responsible for the decision made by Mr Kassim to cross when he did."

Mr Justice Wilkie has approved the £160,000 settlement, which was agreed without admission of liability.

See also:

Fatigue implicated in track worker's death

USDAW North West Kent: 11/25/03

AMEC Rail has been fined £20,000 and sister companies AMEC Services and Primat Recruitment £2500 and £20,000, respectively, following the death of a track worker in July 2001.

Nurani Kassim had been acting as a lookout on track near Croydon during ultrasonic testing of the rails. "It was a particularly busy stretch of line," an HSE spokesman told SHP. "In the space of two hours, 105 trains passed the work site, where there were four sets of railway lines."

Croydon magistrates heard that Kassim four colleagues saw him standing in a narrow section in the middle of the tracks instead of the wider cess area, where he had been instructed to go after being released from his duties. Although the drivers of both an express and a slow train used their horns to warn Kassim, he was struck when the trains passed each other in opposite directions, and sustained fatal injuries.

AMEC Rail and Primat were charged under s3(1) of HSWA 1974 for not ensuring the safety of their employees, while AMEC Services faced a charge of breaching reg. 4(1) of the Railway (Safety Critical Work) Regs. 1994 for not ensuring its employees worked a safe number of hours. Kassim's timesheets showed he had worked 46 consecutive 10-hour days.

Guilty pleas were entered to all the charges. AMEC Rail was ordered to pay £6849 costs.

In mitigation, AMEC Rail said it deeply regretted the death and that it took safety issues very seriously. It had now put procedures in place to prevent over-working.

"One of the issues arising out of this case is the need for contractors to have proper systems to monitor the hours of work done by safety-critical staff, either their own, or those contracted in from other companies," the HSE spokesman said. "They should pick up on patterns of work that might give rise to fatigue."