World events WORLD EVENTS

Moorgate Tube Crash

  1. Home
    2. >
  2. World events
    3. >
  3. Moorgate Tube Crash

The Moorgate tube crash occurred on February 28 1975. At the height of morning rush hour, a crowded tube train slammed into a dead end at Moorgate station. It was over 12 hours before the final survivor was rescued. 43 people died and many more were badly injured.

One of the reasons I remember Moorgate so clearly (I was only 8 at the time) is that someone with the same first initial and last name as my mother was on the list of those killed. My mother was nowhere near Moorgate, and due to claustrophobia wouldn't travel on the tube anyway, but it was a while before all the worried friends and relatives could be reassured.

Suggest an update

Author of this article:



Contributors to this article:

  • There are no contributors yet

Message boards

Discuss Moorgate Tube Crash on the message boards

Do You Remember Moorgate Tube Crash?

Do You Remember Moorgate Tube Crash?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    I am researching this disaster on behalf of several relatives of those killed and have already secured permission for a memorial to be built, just waiting for the money to be raised. In the meantime I am trying to contact anybody involved in this disaster no matter how small. Please email me shipwreckdata@yahoo.co.uk Many thanks. Rich Jones.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    The reason the verdict is still open, is that it was impossible to determine *why* the driver did not brake the train. An autopsy was performed, and he was found to be in good health - no evidence of heart attack, stroke, etc, with no traces of drugs in his system, and only trace amounts of alcohol in his stomach - and it was thought that even that could have been the result of fermentation after death. His family reported that he had shown no signs of being suicidal - yet he apparently made no attempt to brake, and he was still holding the 'dead-man's handle' when his body was found. There is no way of knowing what was in his mind in the last few seconds. Was it deliberate - i.e., did he commit suicide? Did he suffer some kind of mental seizure that made him unable to act? It took more than four days to retrieve his body, so chemical changes could have taken place making test results (performed in the 70s when the science was not as advanced as today) unreliable. Sorry to go on at such length, but I felt that I should point out the difficulties in coming to a conclusion. Short of posthumous mind-reading, it seems unlikely that it is possible to determine why it happened. The open verdict, however, did not stop new safety measures being put in place that physically stop a train if the driver fails to brake for whatever reason. The system is known by some as the Moorgate Control.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I hope there's a memorial at Moorgate to all those who died that day. I only dimly remember it, I was just 6 at the time it happened. One urban myth told that the leading carriage of the train was entombed behind a concrete wall in the end of the tunnel following the disaster, and that it's still there with the driver's blood still all over the cab interior. This is completely untrue- all that's visible now is a huge crater in the tunnel end-wall where the train's front coupling bogie smashed into it.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I am totally disgusted that it's now 35 yearsago when this happened & the Verdict is still open, Why haven't these Government Louts (Labour) done anything about it instead of living off us the General Public We've asked Questions! We are entitled to get Answers! They should all be Heavily Prosecuted for allowing it to go on for this long!

Do you remember these?