IT IS 20 years since the Clapham Junction rail crash claimed 35 lives when two commuter trains from Basingstoke to Waterloo were involved in a collision in south London. Just before 8.15am on December 12, 1988, a train carrying 468 passengers ploughed into the back of another loaded with more than 900. A third train then rammed the wreckage. The crash claimed the lives of Basingstoke residents Arthur Creech, 48, a train driver from Winklebury, and 30-year-old newly-wed Paul Hadfield, from Chineham. More than 500 people were injured – some of them very seriously. Here, some of the survivors recall their grim experience of 20 years ago

ROY Daniel was with his friends in the buffet car of the 7.36am express from Basingstoke when it ploughed into the back of the train in front that had stopped.

He said: “At exactly 8.11am, I asked my friend how we were doing for time. At that point there was an almighty thud and all the crowd of us were flung to the ground.

“The counter from the buffet car was on top of us and we were holding it up trying to support it, trying to stop it falling on us.

“We tried to stand up but it was difficult because the train was up on the embankment.”

He added: “Eventually we had some support from firemen who managed to relieve us from holding this bar up.

“I then had to climb through a hole in the carriage’s roof and up this bank with my briefcase, which was a little bit worse for wear.”

Mr Daniel, who travelled every morning to London where he worked as an accountant, was lucky. He managed to walk free from the wreckage, suffering two cracked ribs.

The 57-year-old, of Bittern Close, Kempshott, Basingstoke, no longer commutes, working mostly from home. But he said: “The disaster stays in people’s minds. The people involved in the Clapham crash will not forget it.”

The public inquiry into the disaster found a wiring fault at a signal was the cause of the crash, showing a green light to the express train, when it should have showed red. This allowed it to smash into the 7.18am stopping train which was bound for Waterloo.

The driver of the slower train had stopped to report a fault with a signal that had turned from green to red shortly before he passed it.

Richard Court, who is now a Basingstoke and Deane Borough councillor, was travelling on the express train two carriages from the front. He was commuting to his job in London as an engineer.

He said: “I was getting up to get my bag and then the next thing I knew I was flying down the seats.

“There was absolute silence in the moments after the crash and I remember very clearly the sound of a blackbird singing away.”

Now 55, Mr Court, who lives in Coniston Road, Kempshott, suffered whiplash injuries, but two years later, doctors found he had a latent back injury from the crash, which still causes him pain.

Ian Gavin-Brown is now a 66-year-old lawyer, well-known for organising the Winchfield Festival. But on December 12, 1988, he was sitting in the stopping train when the express rammed into it.

Mr Gavin-Brown, of Bagwell Lane, Winchfield, said: “It was like being kicked in the back by a horse. There was a tremendous thud and everybody was shaken up.

“I got out of the train and looked back and saw nothing, because there was this bridge in the way. I was appalled to find out later that there were 35 people lying dead back there.”