Tram Derailment Croydon.

[Mamyalynne]

This is nasty.


http://www.itv.com/news/london/2016-11-09/tram-overturns-in-croydon-tunnel/

[marval]

This is very sad, I feel for all concerned.

[Smowball]

Th crash site is only two roads from my house and the other tram stop that you get on to make this journey is opposite my road- the platform is always heaving at this time of night with people gong home and school kids making their way back but now it's just empty with the lights shining in the dark - looks so strange and eery. I could weep for the poor families xx

[Mamyalynne]

Truly awful, where was the Tram going to Smow?

[bednobs]

seven dead now and 8 with life threatening injuroes

[Mamyalynne]

One paper is reporting the driver told a passenger he thought he had 'blacked out'.


Dreadful whatever the cause.

[dunnitall]

How terrible this has been, I wonder why they arrested the driver though, I haven't found any comment on that ATM...

[237SJ]

On the local news just now someone said they heard a screech of brakes and a bang which does sound as if it was going too fast. Too early to say really though - there could have been something on the track or anything else could have happened.

[murraymints]

oh dear..looking like driver error....poor folks...

[Smowball]

Mamya it goes from literally the top of my road to where it crashed and it should have carried on right through Croydon town centre and then on to Wimbledon x

[Mamyalynne]

Ta Smow, so presumably many were commuters given the early hour then, so very sad.

[Tilly2]

Dreadful isn't it? People just going about their daily business and that happens. Awful.

[Smowball]

Yes they would have been getting the early tram either to Croydon/Wimbledon or to get off at Croydon and catch the train into London.

[mikey4444]

Just heard on the news that these Trams are not fitted with any automatic safety devices, that would cut in, if it was going too fast.

The question that begs to be asked if....why not ?

[mushroom25]

//why not?//

on the grown up railway, the TPWS system is fitted mostly to signals, and only a number of key points on the network where intervention is felt necessary approaching speed restrictions are fitted with the system. in most other situations it's up to the driver to drive according to the features of the line, and the conditions. drivers are expected to "know" their routes and regularly sign route cards confirming their knowledge.

Trams have no intervention system but then, neither do buses or other road going passenger vehicles. Trams are driven like your car, on a "drive by sight" regime, and the driver is expected to adjust speed to suit the geography and the conditions. Tram brakes are much more effective than railway brakes - they have to be when they are expected to mix with road traffic (as they are in several UK cities). But like the grown up railway, tram drivers are expected to "know" the routes they operate.