Cannon Street 1991: 2 dead, 542 injured
Govia Thameslink Railway’s Dominic Morrow looks back to London’s fatal buffer stop collision in the '90s and considers the learning for today.
On 8 January 1991, a packed commuter train failed to stop and collided with the buffers at Cannon Street station in London, killing two people and injuring 542 more.
The 10-car stopping service departed Sevenoaks at 07.58, and had over 800 passengers on board after passing through the busy interchange at London Bridge. At 08.44 it struck the stops at the terminus. 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. Many of the 542 were hurt because they had stood up ready to leave as the train entered the platform. The inquiry put the impact speed at around 10 mph.
Another driver, riding passengers from Orpington, confirmed that the driver, who tested positive for recreational drugs three days later, did not act recklessly during the journey. However, on the final approach to the stops, the driver did say his brakes had failed. Subsequent tests did not reveal any issues. It is likely that the driver placed the brake handle into a position known as ‘lap’ and panicked, believing a failure had occurred.
The investigation established that the driver had telephoned the train crew supervisor at around 01:40 to book on for a 07:00 start so that he could make his way directly to Grove Park depot, where the train was stabled. In addition to potential fatigue, the driver riding passenger opened the destination blind cupboard on approach to the buffer stops. This would have increased the amount of artificial light in the cab seconds before the collision. Cannon Street has an overall roof, so it is possible that the driver was still adjusting to the station lighting when the train entered the platform.
Speculation as to his cannabis use on the day of the accident was left as speculation. All the same, legislation was soon brought in to support the Rule Book by making it an offence for rail staff with safety responsibilities to be intoxicated while on duty. That created a much-needed cultural change that’s with us today.
The investigation also recommended British Rail include terminal platforms in its Automatic Train Protection (ATP) systems evaluation. ATP was implemented on the Great Western and Chiltern routes, although an alternative solution – TPWS – became the industry standard. Its provision went on to cut the number of buffer stop collisions.
RAIB recently investigated two buffer stop collisions (Kirkby and Enfield Town), both of which show that caution is still needed, despite the presence of TPWS. See the RAIB website for more details.
Image credit: Trevor Stone