Purley and Bellgrove, 1989

On March 4 1989, a passenger train passed a signal at ‘danger’ and struck another crossing its path at Purley. Five people were killed and 88 were injured.

Pilloried in the press, driver Robert Morgan was later sentenced to 18 months in prison, although it was later found that the same signal had been passed at ‘danger’ four times before.

Drivers had slightly longer to see it while in motion than the seven seconds considered acceptable for a 90mph line, but it became obscured by the station buildings as trains approached.

This “new evidence” was accepted by the court in 2007, and the conviction was overturned. Sadly, Morgan would live with his good name restored for just two more years.

Two days after Purley, a train passed a signal at ‘danger’ and collided with an incoming service at Bellgrove Junction. The driver and a passenger were killed; 53 more were injured.

Although the immediate cause had been the SPAD, it was found that the guard had given the ‘right away’ while the red light was still shining, and that BR’s single lead junction arrangement meant such that a SPAD could put one train into the path of another.