35 people died in the crash

Tributes, wreaths and a minute silence have been held to mark 30 years since three trains crashed outside of Clapham Junction killing 35 and injuring over 400 people.

Just after 8am on the December 12, 1988 three trains crashed due to faulty wiring and signalling. New wiring had been added but the old wiring had been left in place but not adequately secured. 35 people lost their lives with over 400 people were injured, 70 of these were serious and life-changing.

Sadiq Khan, the current Mayor of London and The London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton joined Survivors and relatives of the victims at the memorial, in Spencer Park Battersea, to honour a minute silence then lay wreaths.

The memorial was added to the cutting above the track near Spencer Park to remember the 35 lives lost that day.

The fatal crash was caused by a train which had been coming from Poole to crash into the back of a stationary train from Basingstoke. The second train was then forced to veer into the path of an oncoming empty train.

Members of the emergency services and rail industry representatives also attended the memorial.

Another service was also held at St. Mark’s Church at 8.13am – the exact moment 30 years previously the crash happened. This service was held by the train drivers’ union Aslef.

British Rail was fined £250,000 for violations of health and safety law in connection with the accident.

In 2017 a similar crash happened which brought into question whether enough was learnt from this tragic accident 30 years ago.

On August 15, 2017 a London Waterloo train derailed after it collided with a stationary engineering train. The collision led to no injuries, however, it caused major delays.

It is feared that the lessons have not been learnt from the 1988 Clapham crash as the cause of the 2017 derailment is due to “uncontrolled wiring added to the signalling system” found by the rail accident investigator.