Catalogue of rail death

The Potters Bar derailment is the latest disaster to strike the rail network in what has become a grim, almost annual, occurrence.

It comes only 14 months after the Selby tragedy in North Yorkshire when 10 people died after a Land Rover careered off the M62 on to the east coast mainline and into the path of a GNER train.

Driver Gary Hart, who had fallen asleep at the wheel, is serving a fiveyear jail term for causing death by dangerous driving.

Today's crash is three stations away from the scene of the October 2000 fatal Hatfield derailment. The Hatfield crash left four people dead and 87 injured when a Euston to Leeds express came off the track at more than 115mph.

Subsequent investigations showed the GNER train had hit a cracked section of poorly-maintained track on a bend. The tragedy led to a nationwide check for cracked rails and huge disruption to services.

One of the most severe rail crashes in recent years occurred at Paddington in October 1999 when 31 people were killed and more than 400 injured.

A Thames Trains turbo was found to have passed through a red signal shortly after leaving Paddington station, and it then went on to collide with a Great Western express at a combined speed of more than 130mph.

Public concern over rail safety was already high after the 1997 Southall crash, which happened on the same line as the Paddington tragedy. Seven were killed and some 150 injured when a Swansea to Paddington passenger train collided with a freight train in west London.

The dense London commuter network has been the scene of most of the high-profile fatal crashes of recent years.

In August 1996 one person died and 69 people were hurt in a headon crash at Watford Junction after the driver passed a red signal.

In October 1994 five were killed and 13 injured in a head-on collision after the driver ran a red signal at Cowden in Kent.

The worst train accident of recent years was at Clapham Junction in south-west London in December 1988 when 35 people died following a signal failure.