by Antonio Martinez

Created on: December 18, 2011   Last Updated: December 21, 2011

Just over twenty-three years ago on a December morning, London and all of Great Britain awoke to one of the worst train crashes in almost two decades. The site of the crash has had numerous disasters, but none had a more devastating toll and a need for safety than that on the Monday morning of December 12, 1988 at Clapham Junction in London. The events transpired with a series of unexpected events that had three trains heading into a collision course. While the people responsible for the disasters admitted their responsibility in the event, safety concerns were not prompt following the aftermath.

The first commuter train, which the 6:14 am train that ran from Poole, started later that normal. According to the investigation report, vandalism caused that train to be derailed. That derailment forced the train to originate at the town of Branksome, and not at Poole at 6:21 am. Despite the vandalism the night before, the train rolled along the track.

Meanwhile, almost fifty minutes later, a 7:18 am train running from Bastingstoke to Waterloo, was running a couple of minutes late as well, but this time, the train was overcrowded, delaying the train from leaving on time, according to the investigation report.

While driving the Bastingstoke train, the driver had seen a green signal to stay on the track while coming across a bend of the track. However, in the 200 yards between getting the word of the signal and seeing the actual signal, the track lights changed from green to red. The driver had to take desperate measures to report to the signalman about the change in the lights, making an emergency stop with his brakes.

A third train from Haslemere, which originally started as the 6:14 am train from Farnham, had completed its trip to Waterloo, so there were no passengers on board.

As the driver of the Poole train saw that there was going to be some type of danger, he braked on his train as quickly as possible. The driver described this in the investigative report, saying:

"I heard a mufled bang and then a lot of the slack had been taken up by all the coaches like a machine gun and at the same time another bang. Afterwards I realised this must have been where we hit the empties."

The result was that the Poole train ran into the back of the Bastingstoke train, derailing the trains altogether. As that was going on, the driver from the Haslemere train saw that his train was heading for a collision with the Bastingstoke train. The third train collided with the

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