The Purley station rail crash is a train collision that occurred just to the north of Purley railway station in the London Borough of Croydon on Saturday 4 March 1989, leaving five dead and 88 injured. The collison was caused by the driver of one of the trains passing a signal at danger and he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 months in prison plus 6 months suspended, although this was reduced to four months upon appeal, and in 2007 overturned. The Ministry of Transport report noted that the signal had a high incidence of being passed at danger and recommended that an automatic train protection system should be introduced without delay and in the interim a repeater for the signal that had been passed be installed.
Read more about Purley Station Rail Crash: Collision, Aftermath, Trial, Report and Appeals, Legacy
Famous quotes containing the words station, rail and/or crash:
“It was evident that the same foolish respect was not here claimed for mere wealth and station that is in many parts of New England; yet some of them were the “first people,” as they are called, of the various towns through which we passed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Old man, it’s four flights up and for what?
Your room is hardly any bigger than your bed.
Puffing as you climb, you are a brown woodcut
stooped over the thin rail and the wornout tread.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
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—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)