Today (October 5) marks the 16th anniversary of the Ladbroke Grove rail disaster. Thirty-one people lost their lives and 523 were injured in a head-on collision between two passenger trains on October 5 1999.
In the wake of the investigation into the accident, Lord Cullen launched a public inquiry into not only the accident itself, but also the management and regulation of rail safety as a whole.
The disaster became a catalyst for the setting up of the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), which celebrates its tenth anniversary on October 17.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, today remembered those who died - and were injured.
He said: “As an industry we should never forget those who lost their lives, and those who were injured, and those families who were impacted and who suffered in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash. As an industry we should never forget the lessons that we learned in what is - and always will be - a safety-critical industry.”
See RAIL 786 (on sale October 28) to read about the work of the RAIB and what it has achieved over its first ten years.
Ladbroke Grove – ten years on http://www.railmagazine.com/operations/policy/ladbroke-grove-ten-years-on
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