Leaders: Two injured after train crashes through buffers at London station

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Two injured after train crashes through buffers at London station

Two people were injured when a train carrying around 50 people crashed through buffers at a north London station.

The crash involved a London Overground service at Enfield Town station during rush hour on Tuesday morning.

Images posted on social media show the train remained upright but came off the tracks and stopped just short of hitting a station building.

London Fire Brigade said passengers were evacuated from the eight-carriage train by Transport for London and station staff.

The train driver is being “treated for shock”, Network Rail said.

British Transport Police said the driver and another person were “checked over by paramedics at the scene”.

She added: “As is routine, the driver has been breathalysed and blew negative.”

"Thankfully, there are not the sort of casualties we could have had - just the one driver taken for shock to hospital," said London Mayor Sadiq Khan

Rory O’Neill, TfL’s general manager for London Overground, described the incident as “a low-speed collision with a buffer”.

He said: “There will be a full investigation to establish how this happened.”

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “Two people were assessed at the scene for minor injuries, but they were not taken to hospital.”

London Fire Brigade station commander Jim O’Neill, who was at the scene, added: “The train had hit the buffers at the station, which is at the end of the line, and gone up over the top of them.

“Firefighters carried out a systematic search of the train to ensure there were no further people on board.

A worker from a nearby postal sorting office said he was “shocked” by the sight of the crashed train.

Gary Spencer said that dozens of emergency services vehicles were outside the station.

“(There was) initially some shock but more importantly (I was hoping) that there were no casualties,” he said.

“I have never known a train to fail stopping at the end of the line… if the metal steel was not behind the buffer I’m confident the train would have damaged the building.

“The situation seemed very much in control.”

Rail regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said: “We’re aware of an incident at Enfield Town railway station and we are sending two ORR safety inspectors to assist emergency services and help establish the full circumstances surrounding this incident.”

TfL, which controls the London Overground network, said services were suspended from Edmonton Green to Enfield Town “while we deal with an operating incident at Enfield Town”.

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