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Report on the Accident that occurred on 4th May 1971 at Tooting Broadway on the Northern Line London Transport Railways

Document Summary

The report into a dead-end collision at Tooting Broadway in 1971.

This document was published on 12th November 1971 by Department of the Environment.

It was written by Lieut. Col. A. G. Townsend-Rose.

This item is linked to the Accident at Tooting Broadway on 4th May 1971

The original document format was Stapled Book, and comprised 8 pages.

This document was kindly sourced from Nick Smith and is in our Accident reports collection. It was added to the Archive on 15th May 2006.

Copyright Information

This document is Crown Copyright, and is subject to the terms governing the reproduction of crown copyright material. Depending on the status and age of the original document, you may need an OPSI click-use license if you wish to reproduce this material, and other restrictions may apply. Please see this explanation for further details.

"1 cannot be certain what caused [the driver] to drive as he did. I have sat in the driver's seat of a Northern line train and have simulated a black-out with my right hand on the controller in the "Series" position. As I allowed myself to fall forward the controller naturally moved away from my body into the "Off" position. Even if it had moved the other way into the full "Parallel" position it seemed most unlikely that the weight of the body on the arm would hold the dead-man's handle in the depressed position. (Its release would make an emergency brake application which, in Smith's case would probably have stopped the train). Finally, the medical evidence and the lack of damage to the top of Motorman Smith's head make this possibility unlikely.

[The driver] may have been temporarily lost and thought for a moment that he was at Kennington on the southbound Charing Cross line and was to enter the siding there. That siding has a long approach on a steep uphill gradient and leads to a double length siding, and the initial use of full "Parallel" control would not have been dangerous. The platform and office are also somewhat similar although the signalling and track layout are not the same."

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