page_title: Lewisham rail crash
section_title: Report
hierarchical_section_title: Lewisham rail crash / Report
caption_attribution_description: English: A memorial plaque to the Lewisham train disaster of 1957, on the wall of Lewisham train station.
context_page_description: On the evening of 4 December 1957, two trains crashed in dense fog on the South Eastern main line near Lewisham in south-east London, causing the death of 90 people and injuring 173. An electric train to Hayes had stopped at a signal under the bridge, and the following steam train to Ramsgate crashed into it, destroying a carriage and causing the bridge to collapse onto the steam train. The bridge had to be completely removed and it was over a week before the lines under the bridge were reopened, and another month before the bridge was rebuilt and traffic allowed over it.
  The driver of the Ramsgate train was acquitted of manslaughter charges after two trials. The Ministry of Transport report found that he had failed to slow down after passing two caution signals, so he was unable to stop at the danger signal, concluding that the use of an Automatic Warning System would have prevented the collision.
context_section_description: The Ministry of Transport report on the collision was published in 1958. Witnesses were interviewed, the visibility of the signals on the line examined, and tests showed no fault in the signalling equipment. The report found that the driver had not slowed for two caution signals, and applied the brakes only after the fireman had called to him that he had passed a danger signal. Although he had poor visibility of signals from the driver's seat, he did not cross over to see them, or ask the fireman to look for them.
  The report concluded that an "Automatic Train Control of the Warning type" would have prevented the collision. Although installation had been agreed after the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash in 1952, priority was being given to main-line routes controlled by semaphore signals. The poor visibility of signals from the steam locomotive, Battle of Britain class No. 34066, was mentioned with a recommendation that they be fitted with wider windscreens.
caption: Memorial to the train crash on the wall of the station
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