February 28 In History: The Moorgate Tragedy, Britain's Worst Subway Accident

Moorgate accident (Source: Londonfire.gov.uk)

JAKARTA - Subway number 0838 departs from Drayton Park towards Moorgate at the Highbury branch. The train, which departed 30 seconds late, was carrying 300 passengers. That day, February 28, 1975, the train was unlucky. The trip was the worst subway accident in British history.

"When darkness fell, there was a very loud noise, metal and glass breaking, no screaming, all in a split second needed to catch a breath. It all ended in no time," a survivor, Javier Gonzalez, told the BBC.

The accident occurred when the train was approaching its destination at around 8:46 a.m. The train failed to slow down, traveling at speeds from 30 miles per hour to 40 miles per hour. The train with six cars hit the wall at the end of the tunnel, destroying the first, second, and half of the third carriage. Leslie Newson, who operated, left his own story.

Conditions in train cars (Source: london-fire.gov.uk)

At the time of the accident, the 56-year-old was carrying nearly £ 300 in cash to buy his daughter a car. During the accident, he did not move or raise his hands to protect his face. Staff at Moorgate immediately called emergency services. The first ambulance arrived at the scene just eight minutes after the impact.

The violent accident caused total darkness at Moorgate Station. Dust and soot filled the tunnels. Newson died along with 42 other passengers. Meanwhile, 74 others were injured. They were rushed to the hospital.

Evacuation of Victims

The process of evacuating victims (Source: london-fire.gov.uk)

Evacuation is carried out. Gerard Kemp of the Daily Telegraph was the only journalist allowed to cover. Kemp described the evacuation as "unprecedented difficulty."

He described the evacuation scene with many limbs falling apart amidst the shattered metal. It took hundreds of police, ambulance staff, members of the Salvation Army, and more than 1,300 firefighters. The evacuation lasted four days to bring everyone on board.

A young policewoman was rescued from the front gate 12 hours after the incident. The evacuation team removed the policewoman after amputating her leg. Less than 13 hours and 19 minutes after the collision, the last victim was rescued.

Kemp described the temperature challenges faced by everyone inside the tunnel. “One of the biggest problems is the intense heat there. It must be 120 degrees. It was like opening the oven door."

The body of the driver, Newson, was found on March 4, four days after the collision. In the vicinity of Newson's body was found the money he had brought to buy his daughter a car. Newson's bag contains a work schedule, a copy of the manual, and two notebooks. One of his notebooks contains information on how to handle defects and failures of rail operations.

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