On 9 November 2016, a tram operated by Tramlink derailed and overturned on a sharp bend approaching a junction. Of a total 69 passengers, there were seven fatalities and 62 injured, 19 of whom sustained serious injuries. This was the first tram incident in the United Kingdom in which passengers died since 1959.
The service was running from New Addington to via Croydon, and was on the approach to Sandilands tram stop soon after 06:00. The speed limit dropped from to at the junction but the driver did not slow down significantly.
A Rail Accident Investigation Branch investigation found that the driver of the tram had lost awareness before the crash, possibly as a result of microsleep. It also criticised the lack of signage in advance of the sudden change in speed limit.
An inquest returned verdicts of accidental death on all seven victims. In March 2022, the Office of Rail and Road announced that it was to prosecute the driver of the tram, Tram Operations Limited and Transport for London over the accident. In June 2023, the driver was cleared after a trial at the Old Bailey.
Accident
The accident took place in the dark and during heavy rain at 06:07, on a sharp left curve approaching the points where the route from New Addington (on which the tram was operating) converges with the line from Beckenham Junction and Elmers End. The curve is located in a cutting, which comes almost immediately after the line emerges from a series of three tunnels on a straight section of track after leaving Lloyd Park tram stop. It has been described as a "sharp bend", and has a speed restriction.
The tram entered the curve at a speed of approximately and derailed, overturning on its right side and coming to a stand beyond the point of derailment, damaging the side of the tram and ejecting several passengers through broken windows. The tram involved was No. 2551, a Bombardier CR4000 constructed in 1998 by Bombardier Transportation, a two-section articulated unit with a maximum design speed of .
The emergency services confirmed that 51 people were injured, and initially stated that five had died. The death toll later rose to seven. The victims, six men and a woman, were between 19 and 63 years old. Sixteen of the survivors were described as having serious or life-threatening injuries. The final casualty figures were seven dead and 62 injured, 19 seriously. One person was uninjured.
It was the deadliest tram accident in the United Kingdom since an accident at Dover in 1917 killed eleven and injured 60, and the first in the United Kingdom in which passengers died since three people died in an accident in Glasgow in 1959. It is also the deadliest accident on any rail network in the UK since the 2001 Great Heck rail crash.
Aftermath
The injured were taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting, and to Croydon University Hospital. As well as the 51 people taken to hospital, seven more made their own way to hospital for treatment. Twenty-two ambulances, eight fire engines, and over 70 firefighters from the London Fire Brigade were sent to the scene. Assistance was given by Croydon Council, the Red Cross, Salvation Army and railway chaplains.
FirstGroup, which operates the tram service on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), said it was "shocked and saddened by what happened." An extra minute was added to the two-minute Armistice Day silence at Croydon Cenotaph. TfL later made an offer to cover the funeral expenses of the victims.
During the night of 10–11 November, the tram was righted in preparation for removal from the accident site, and it was removed on the morning of 12 November. The tram had suffered serious damage to its right side, onto which it had overturned.
After the accident, no services operated on the line between East Croydon and Addington Village, Harrington Road or Elmers End. Partial tram services ran between East Croydon and , between New Addington and Addington Village, and between Beckenham Junction and Harrington Road. Full services were reinstated on 18 November.