2016 Croydon tram derailment

Accident

The accident took place in the dark and during heavy rain at 06:07, on a sharp left curve approach­ing the points where route 3 from New Addington (on which the tram was operating) converges with the line from Beckenham Junction and Elmers End. The curve is located in a cutting, which comes almost immediately after the line emerges from a series of three tunnels on a 1-mile (1.6 km) straight section of track after leaving Lloyd Park tram stop. It has been described as a "sharp bend", and has a 20 km/h (12 mph) speed restriction.

The tram entered the curve at a speed of 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph), and overturned onto its right side, falling outside the curve on which it was travelling and trapping several people inside. The tram was a Bombardier CR4000, No. 2551, which is a two-car articulated unit, and has a maximum design speed of 80 km/h (50 mph).

The emergency services confirmed that 51 people were injured, and initially stated that five had been killed. The death toll later rose to seven. The victims, six men and a woman, were between 19 and 63 years old. Sixteen of the survivors were described as having serious or life-threatening injuries.

It was the deadliest tram accident in the United Kingdom since an accident at Dover in 1917 killed eleven and injured 60, and the first in the United Kingdom in which passengers were killed since three people died in an accident in Glasgow in 1959. It is also the deadliest accident on any rail network in the UK since the 2001 Great Heck rail crash.

Aftermath

The injured were taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting, and to Croydon University Hospital. As well as the 51 people taken to hospital, seven more made their own way to hospital for treatment. Twenty-two ambulances, eight fire engines, and over 70 firefighters from the London Fire Brigade were sent to the scene. Assistance was given by Croydon Council, the Red Cross, Salvation Army and railway chaplains.

FirstGroup, which operates the tram service on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), said it was "shocked and saddened by what happened." An extra minute was added to the two-minute Armistice Day silence at Croydon Cenotaph. TfL later made an offer to cover the funeral expenses of the victims.

During the night of 10–11 November, the tram was righted in preparation for removal from the accident site, and it was removed on the morning of 12 November. The tram had suffered serious damage to its right side, onto which it had overturned.

After the accident, no services operated on the line between East Croydon and Addington Village, Harrington Road or Elmers End. Partial tram services ran between East Croydon and Wimbledon, between New Addington and Addington Village, and between Beckenham Junction and Harrington Road. Full services were reinstated on 18 November.

It was found that the speed restriction sign for the bend at Sandilands was not visible to drivers until the tram had travelled for 60 to 90 metres (66 to 98 yd) past the point where braking would need to have been initiated to reach the required speed at the sign. At Sandilands, an additional speed restriction was imposed before the curve, and chevron signs were installed to give better warning of the curve. Chevron signs were also installed at three other locations on the Croydon Tramlink system. Following recommendations made in the first interim report into the accident, tram systems in the United Kingdom introduced stepped speed reductions where there was a required reduction in speed of 30 kilometres per hour (19 mph) or more. This afffected systems in Blackpool, Edinburgh, the West Midlands and Nottingham.

British Transport Police

The 42-year-old tram driver was arrested by the British Transport Police on suspicion of manslaughter. After questioning, he was released on bail until May 2017. According to The Metro, one aspect of the police investigation is whether or not the tram driver fell asleep; and The Guardian reports that some passengers said the driver had blacked out at the controls.

A former driver suggested, to The Times, that a blackout was a possibility, due to the erratic shift patterns that the drivers had to adhere to. He also said that the vending machine at the tram depot was stocked only with energy drinks, and that "Nobody is ever fully awake; I was always in a bit of a daze and that is because the way the shifts work doesn't allow the drivers to get a regular sleep pattern." Following this, multiple sources reported on a video apparently showing a different driver struggling to stay awake at the controls. The driver concerned was suspended pending an investigation into the matter.

Office of Rail and Road

The Office of Rail and Road opened its own investigation into the accident, concentrating on whether or not safety rules were followed. They have confirmed that British trams are not fitted with any safety protection systems that would apply the brakes automatically if they are going too fast.

Rail Accident Investigation Branch

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) is also investigating the accident, with data from the tram's on-board event recorder being analysed. The RAIB stated that initial indications suggest that the tram was travelling at a significantly higher speed than permitted. Rail magazine reported that the tram's electro-magnetic track brakes had not been activated. Following the accident, The Guardian reported that on 31 October there had been passenger allegations made on Facebook of a tram travelling round the curve at excessive speed. The Evening Standard reports an earlier passenger complaint describing the tram as "tipping" on the curve. The driver of the tram involved in the incident of 31 October was not the one involved in the accident on 9 November.

The interim report was released a week later on 16 November 2016. At the time of the accident it was dark and it was raining heavily. There was no evidence of any track defects, or obstructions on the track, that could have contributed to the derailment. Initial investigation did not indicate any malfunction of the tram's braking system. Initial findings were that the tram, with about 60 people on board, was travelling at approximately 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph) at the time of the accident – far more than the speed restriction of 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph) – with the brakes having been applied late. A recommendation was made that a further speed limit should be introduced prior to the one for the curve at Sandilands Junction before the line reopened to traffic. The recommendation was accepted and three further speed restrictions were put in place before the line reopened. In November 2016, Rail magazine called for the RAIB to complete its investigation and release the final report "much more rapidly than has become the norm".

A second interim report was released on 20 February 2017.