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On this day – February 28th

28th February 2018 @ 6:06am – by Webteam
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The Moorgate Tube Crash

At 8.46 on February 28 1975 the 8.39 service from Drayton Park drew into Moorgate Station on time, but rather than slowing as it approached platform 9 the train carried on, accelerated even according to some reports, ploughing through a sand barrier and buffer and ramming into the dead end of the tunnel. The five feet thick tunnel wall met the force of the 1938 rolling-stock train, and the first three carriages concertinaed, bent, split and mixed into a tangle of metal and wood.
Forty three people died in the crash which to this day remains unexplained. Some were killed by the impact of the collision itself, others suffocated in the crush of bodies piled together.
The 56-year-old driver, was in good health. No evidence of stroke or heart attack was found when his body was finally recovered after more than four days. He had small traces of alcohol in his system, but was not known as a drinker, and these may have come from fermentation after the accident. He was not known to be depressed, and had the happy prospect of spending £300 on a car for his daughter later in the day, the cash sitting in his pocket. Yet he was seen staring ahead, not moving, as the train approached the dead end. He did not even put his hands up to protect himself, as instinct would dictate, with the wall in his view, nor did he lift his hand from the so-called dead-man's handle safety device.
The rescue and recovery mission that day was described, for once without hyperbole, as hellish by doctors involved. The bodies were as tangled as the wreckage; and in the tunnel the temperature soared to an estimated 120 centigrade. The last survivor was only extracted at 10 in the evening, 15 hours after the horror began.
Improvements to safety were made after the accident, though the cause was never determined: it is possible that the driver had a rare type of seizure that froze him in place; it is equally possible that against type he had committed suicide. It is highly unlikely, however, that the event will ever be satisfactorily explained.

Which London Tube line contains Moorgate?

Click here for the answer

Moorgate station today is on the Northern/Circle/District/Metropolitan Lines, but the crash happened on the Highbury branch of the Northern line which is separate. This branch is now known as the Moorgate or Northern City line which runs from Finsbury Park to Moorgate and is not part of the Transport for London organisation, having been handed over to National Rail in 1975.


This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.

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