Government plans to introduce a new offence of corporate manslaughter have received a mixed reaction from people traumatised by disasters.

The changes proposed by Home Secretary David Blunkett are likely to make it easier for companies to be prosecuted for deaths caused by gross negligence. A timetable for legislation is expected in the autumn.

Bruce Creed, 57, a survivor of the Paddington disaster in 1999, in which a Thames Turbo train collided with a Great Western Express train, said: "It's important that individual directors are not held up as scapegoats.

"Implementing a law like that is extremely difficult. In the Paddington situation, so many things went wrong that to pin it on one individual would be crazy."

But Mr Creed, of Delamere Way, Oxford, added: "If companies are found liable, the penalties should be severe."

The Oxford Mail launched a campaign to change the law the day after the rail crash, which killed 31 people.

David Taylor, of Abingdon Road, Didcot, who also survived, was sceptical.

Mr Taylor, 38, has stopped travelling by train because he said safety still has not been improved.

He said: "Companies will find a way of getting out of it. It's always somebody else's fault."

Anne Jones, of Banbury, whose son Simon, 24, was killed on his first day at work in 1998, said ministers had fudged the issue so far.

Mr Jones died while working for Dutch firm Euromin at Shoreham Docks, West Sussex.

The company was fined £50,000 for breaking health and safety rules, but was cleared of manslaughter.

Mrs Jones said: "Parliamentary time never allows it. But they can always find parliamentary time for their pet projects."

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