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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Date and time: | 08:10, 12 December 1988 (UTC) |
| Location: | near Clapham Junction |
| Rail line: | South Western Main Line (Network SouthEast) |
| Cause | Signal error arising out of poor electrical engineering work practices |
| Statistics | |
| Trains: | 3 |
| Deaths: | 35 |
| Injuries: | 500 |
| List of UK rail accidents by year List of UK rail accidents by death toll |
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The Clapham Junction rail crash was a serious railway accident involving two collisions between three commuter trains at 08:10 on the morning of Monday, 12 December 1988.
The collisions occurred 800 m (half a mile) southwest of Clapham Junction railway station in southwest London. Thirty-five people died and five hundred were injured,[1] making the crash one of the worst in the UK in recent times.
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The first collision occurred after the driver of the 07:18 from Basingstoke to Waterloo saw a signal in front of him abruptly change from green to red. As required, the driver stopped his train at the next signal post telephone to report to the signalman at Clapham Junction 'A' signal box that his train had passed a red signal. He was advised there was no fault and that he was free to proceed. The driver told the signalman that he intended to make a formal report when he reached Waterloo. As the driver hung up the phone his train was hit from behind at a speed of about 40 mph (65 km/h) by the late-running 06:14 from Poole, running under false 'proceed' signals.
A second side-on collision consequent on the first involved the second, third and fourth coaches of an empty train leaving Clapham Junction being hit by the wreckage of the Poole train, causing derailment and separation from the first carriage. A fourth train approaching also under false clear signals at the time managed to stop about 70 yd (60 m) clear of the rear of the Poole train.
Pupils from the adjacent Emanuel School were first on the scene of the disaster and helped save the lives of many. They were commended for their service by the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
The immediate cause of the crash was incorrect wiring work in which an old wire, incorrectly left in place after rewiring work and still connected at the supply end, created a false feed to a signal relay, thereby causing its signal to show green when it should have shown red.[2] A contributing technical factor was the lack of double switching (called "double cutting" in railway terminology) in the signal relay circuits, which would have prevented a single false feed causing an accident. The larger cause of the accident was the failure by British Rail senior management to recognise that the resignalling of the Clapham Junction area – and indeed the resignalling of all the lines out of Waterloo, of which this was a part – should have been treated as a major, safety-critical project, controlled throughout by a single, senior, named project manager. Instead the job was left to middle-level technical staff, stressed, poorly supervised by their seniors and poorly supported by their juniors. Staffing levels were inadequate and the staff, dulled by months of voluntary seven-days-a-week work, were carrying out the complete resignalling of the largest and, on some measures, busiest junction on the whole British rail system. British Rail were forced to overhaul their signal works testing regime and adopted the tried and tested method employed on the London Underground.
The inquiry into the Clapham rail crash, chaired by Anthony Hidden QC, also recommended the introduction of the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system; however the inquiry's recommendation was not acted on. Subsequent crashes such as at Southall in 1997 and Ladbroke Grove in 1999 led to further recommendations for the introduction of ATP, and although it has been installed on some lines, it has not to date been specified for the entire network. In the statement on the Ladbroke Grove crash, the Department for Transport sought to make the point that "no workable system was available in Britain" at the time.
The accident also highlighted the relatively poor crashworthiness of the rolling stock, which was all of BR's 1950s vintage Mark 1 design. Being of separate chassis design, the carriage superstructures detached from their underframes on impact and disintegrated in the collision. The enquiry recommended that the Mark 1 stock should be strengthened to provide greater accident survivability.
A memorial marking the location of the crash site is atop the embankment above the railway on Windmill Road by Spencer Park, Battersea.
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   | BBC News story - BBC ON THIS DAY | 12 | 1988: 35 dead in Clapham rail collision |
| | Hidden Inquiry - The Railways Archive :: Investigation into the Clapham Junction Railway Accident |
| | Map of the location of the crash - Maps of the world, street map search - powered by Multimap |
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