Moorgate Tube Crash...

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the worst ever accident involving a London Underground train.  I was only twelve years old at the time, but I remember it well.  It is incredible to think it is now forty years since that fateful day.

At 8.46am, a southbound Northern Line train arrived at Moorgate station.  The train should have been slowing to a a halt to allow the 300+ passengers to disembark, but instead, was accelerating (some 35-40mph).  With Moorgate being the end of the line, there was nowhere for the train to go, and it slammed into the wall at the end of the tunnel.

With the full weight of the train following, the leading car buckled, and was compacted to less than half the original length.  The final death toll was 42 passengers, and the driver of the train, 56-year-old Leslie Newson.  In addition, 72 injured passengers were taken to hospital for treatment.

The last survivor was freed over thirteen hours after the crash, and Mr Newson's body was recovered until 8pm four days later.

Today, we still have no answers.  It wasn't a mechanical fault, and it doesn't seem that a medical condition affected the driver.  We will never know...

12th May 2014 by themostinept is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

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