Event    From 10/5/2002  To 10/5/2002

Potters Bar rail crash

Categories: Tragedy, Transport

A West Anglian Great Northern train left King's Cross at 12.45 bound for King's Lynn. At 12.55 it crossed over a set of points on which the blades moved suddenly without warning. The rear of the train was derailed and the fourth carriage was flipped on to Potters Bar Station platforms, also striking a parapet sending debris on to the road below. Six passengers and a pedestrian were killed and 76 injured. A subsequent investigation put the blame of the accident on the poorly maintained points.

One of the dead was Austen Kirk, husband of the writer Nina Bawden. She herself received life-threatening injuries, but survived.

Potters Bar station has seen a few serious crashes:
1946: a local train travelling to King's Cross hit the buffers and fouled the main lines. Two express trains travelling in opposite directions hit the wreckage. Two passengers were killed and 17 injured.
1899: the Earl of Strafford was hit and killed by an express train. Witnesses say he walked into the path of the train at the end of the platform, but a verdict of misadventure was given.
1898: a train ran through signals and crashed on to the platform. No-one was killed.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Potters Bar rail crash

Commemorated ati

Potters Bar Rail Crash - Garden of Remembrance

In memory of the seven people who lost their lives and those who were injured...

Read More

Potters Bar rail crash - platform

In memory of the seven people who lost their lives and those who were injured...

Read More

Other Subjects

Fm. Albert Hunt

Fm. Albert Hunt

Firefighter from Brixton Fire Station who died as a result of a fire.

Person, Emergency Services, Tragedy

1 memorial
Burns' Day Storm

Burns' Day Storm

Because this storm hit during the day-time it caused more human casualties than the Great Storm of 1987. Then the death toll was 22, compared with 47 on Burns' Day. Under other names (e.g. Daria) t...

Event, Tragedy

2 memorials
Delroy Manning

Delroy Manning

Plasterer killed in the Ladbroke Grove rail disaster, aged 39. Andrew Behan has kindly carried out further research: Delroy Oliver Manning was born on 14 January 1960 in Jamaica, West Indies. In M...

Person, Tragedy, Caribbean Islands

1 memorial
Lina Vella Calogera Lombardo

Lina Vella Calogera Lombardo

There is some confusion about this lady who was killed in the Moorgate tube disaster. Although she is shown as 'LOMBARDO, LINA VELLA' on the Moorgate tube disaster memorial in Finsbury Square, Lon...

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial
Thomas Blanky

Thomas Blanky

Role on the lost expedition: Officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial