Cannon Street rail crash

Last updated

Cannon Street station rail crash
Cannon street station 2.jpg
Details
Date8 January 1991
Location Cannon Street station
CountryEngland
Operator Network SouthEast
Incident typeCollision
CauseDriver's error
Statistics
Trains1
Passengers832+ [1]
Deaths2
Injured542
List of UK rail accidents by year

On 8 January 1991, a packed commuter train failed to stop and collided with the buffers at Cannon Street station in London, United Kingdom, killing two and injuring 542. The cause was driver error, compounded by ageing wooden carriages.

Contents

Accident

The stopping service, composed of 10 cars of elderly Class 415 and Class 416 units 5618, 5484 and 6227, departed from Sevenoaks at 07:58, and had over 800 passengers on board after passing through the busy interchange at London Bridge. At 08:44 it collided with the buffer stop at the Cannon Street terminus within the City of London. The fifth and sixth carriages crushed into each other, lifting one off the tracks. A 24-year-old man, cut free from wreckage crushing his head and abdomen, died from a heart attack on the way to hospital. A 59-year-old woman died three days later from her injuries. 542 other passengers were injured, many because they had stood up ready to leave as the train entered the terminus platform. The inquiry put the impact speed at around 10 mph, higher than the rail operator's earlier estimates. [2] [1]

Inquiry

A report was compiled of the accident by Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate. [1] No fault in the train's braking system could be found and the driver, Maurice Graham, was held to blame. [2] He was not tested for drugs until three days after the accident, whereupon traces of cannabis were found in his system. The public inquiry found that there was insufficient evidence to prove drug use had caused the accident.

The inquiry found that the cause of the accident was solely that of driver error. The report also made the following observations:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenbrook rail accident</span> Australian railway collision

The Glenbrook rail accident occurred on 2 December 1999 at 8:22 am on a curve east of Glenbrook railway station on the CityRail network between Glenbrook and Lapstone, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. Seven passengers were killed and 51 passengers were taken to hospital with injuries when a CityRail electric interurban train collided with the rear wagon of the long-haul Perth-to-Sydney Indian Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enfield Town railway station</span> London Overground station

Enfield Town railway station is the terminus of the Enfield Town branch of the Lea Valley Lines, located in Enfield Town, north London. It is one of three northern termini of London Overground's Weaver line, 10 miles 55 chains (17.2 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buffer stop</span> Device to stop trains at end of track

A buffer stop, bumper, bumping post, bumper block or stopblock (US), is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a physical section of track.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Rail Class 415</span> British Rail coaching stock

The British Rail Class 415 was a suburban 750 V DC third rail electric multiple unit commissioned by the Southern Region of British Railways. Built between 1951 and 1957, it became the most numerous class on the region after the withdrawal of the 4SUBs. The final trains were withdrawn in the 1990s, replaced by Class 455, 456, 465 and 466.

The Eltham Well Hall rail crash was an accident on the British railway system that occurred on 11 June 1972 at approximately 21:35. An excursion train from Margate to Kentish Town derailed on a sharp curve at Eltham Well Hall station, Eltham, London. The curve had a maximum permitted speed to be taken at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) but the train was estimated to have been travelling at 65 miles per hour (105 km/h) resulting in the locomotive and all but one of the ten carriages derailing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasgow Bellgrove rail accident</span> Railway crash at Bellgrove, Glasgow, Scotland, in 1989

The Bellgrove rail accident occurred on 6 March 1989 when two passenger trains collided near Bellgrove station, Glasgow, United Kingdom. Two people were killed and 53 were injured. The cause was driver error, with a signal being passed at danger. The layout of a junction was a contributory factor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spa Road Junction rail crash</span>

The Spa Road Junction rail crash was an accident on the British railway system which occurred during the peak evening rush hour of 8 January 1999 at Spa Road Junction in Bermondsey, in South East London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telescoping (rail cars)</span> Type of railway accident

In a railway accident, telescoping occurs when the underframe of one vehicle overrides that of another, and smashes through the second vehicle's body. The term is derived from the resulting appearance of the two vehicle bodies: the body of one vehicle may appear to be slid inside the other like the tubes of a collapsible telescope – the body sides, roof and underframe of the latter vehicle being forced apart from each other.

There have been a number of train accidents on the railway network of Victoria, Australia. Some of these are listed below.

The railways of New South Wales, Australia have had many incidents and accidents since their formation in 1831. There are close to 1000 names associated with rail-related deaths in NSW on the walls of the Australian Railway Monument in Werris Creek. Those killed were all employees of various NSW railways. The details below include deaths of employees and the general public.

The Wrawby Junction rail crash was a train crash which occurred on 9 December 1983, at Wrawby Junction, near Barnetby station, North Lincolnshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naro-Fominsk rail crash</span>

The Naro-Fominsk rail crash occurred on 20 May 2014 when a freight train derailed near Naro-Fominsk, Moscow Oblast, Russia. The train was run into by a passenger train. Nine people were killed and 51 were injured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Salisbury rail crash</span> Railway crash in the United Kingdom

The Salisbury Rail Crash was a railway accident on 31 October 2021, at Salisbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom. Two trains, travelling on converging lines, collided at Salisbury Tunnel Junction, approximately one mile northeast of Salisbury railway station. Fourteen people, including one of the train drivers, were taken to hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirkby train crash</span> 2021 railway crash in the United Kingdom

On 13 March 2021, a Class 507 electric multiple unit operated by Merseyrail collided with the buffer stop at Kirkby railway station, Merseyside, United Kingdom. The only injury was the driver of the train. The cause was found to be that the driver was using a mobile phone whilst driving. The distraction led him to enter the station at excessive speed. He was dismissed from Merseyrail and later prosecuted, pleading guilty to a charge of endangering the safety of people on the railway, for which he received a 12-month suspended sentence.

References

  1. 1 2 3 A Report of the Collision that Occurred on 8 January 1991 at Cannon Street Station, at The Railways Archive
  2. 1 2 "1991: One dead as train crashes into buffers". BBC News - On This Day. Retrieved 18 October 2020.

51°30′38″N0°5′26″W / 51.51056°N 0.09056°W / 51.51056; -0.09056