Coroner releases report on 7/7 bombings

Changes must be made in intelligence and emergency services, the coroner who heard five months of testimony on the London Transport bombings said Friday. Lady Justice Heatlher Hallett, a judge on the Court of Appeal, said the deaths of 52 people could probably not have been prevented, the Daily Mirror reported. Four suicide bombers struck three Underground trains and a bus July 7, 2005. Most of the judge's nine recommendations involved emergency services, The Guardian reported. She had limited power to recommend changes at MI5, the domestic intelligence agency. "The medical and scientific evidence in relation to all 52 victims leads to only one sad conclusion," she said. "Each of them would have died whatever time emergency services rescued them." During the lengthy inquest, witnesses said firefighters and rescue workers were not able to communicate from the bombed trains because their radios did not work in the tunnels. The first fire engine reached one train almost a half hour after the bombing. The families of those killed in the attacks said they still have questions, the Mirror reported. "The warning signs were there after 9/11 but we got complacent. I fear that can happen again," said John Taylor, whose daughter, Carrie, was killed at age 24. "Bin Laden may very well be dead -- but there are other people who will come and take his place."