Haunted by horrors of Paddington
The Paddington London (Ladbroke Grove) rail crash claimed the lives of 31 people and happened exactly ten years ago today (Monday October 5)
A lightweight Thames commuter train and a Great Western express train impacted outside London, killing 31 people and injuring more than 400 others, survivors are marking the anniversary of the disaster with a special service of rememberance.
The inexperienced driver of the Thames commuter train, had accelerated through a red signal which, an inquiry later decided, was hard to see and had been "passed at danger" seven times before.
At 0811 BST on Monday, exactly 10 years after the Paddington rail crash, survivors will join relatives of those who died at the memorial to the disaster in Ladbroke Grove.
My own involvement with what came to be known as the Paddington Train Crash was to get a phone call from the major burns unit at the specialist East Grinstead NHS hospital. Beds had been cleared. Day cases deferred and they were expecting some 40 serious burns victims from the Paddington crash.
As with every major incident someone has to handle the media enquiries and East Grinstead at the time did not have an in-house Media facility, Within 2 hours I had assembled a team. sourced and installed the hardware, and created from scratch a media response unit just in time as the press calls came in and camera crews with scanner trucks, assembled outside.
What struck me was the way the 'Major Incident Plan' [MIP], swung into action. Dedicated wall cabinets in each department held the MIP master plan as it related to that department, armbands, identity tabards and paperwork.
I've produced several such incident manuals for airlines and disaster relief organisations but never until that time actually seen the plan activated from medical professionals standpoint.
For BBC Radio News, IRN and several Fleet Street newspapers, I reported all through the UK mainland IRA bombing campaign and had witnessed the results at first hand. The dedicated professionalism of all the front line services is something we tend to take for granted, in which case a very big thank you from all of us!
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For Publication CREDITLINE: Julian Bray MCIPR NUJ
julianbray@aol.com Tel: 0044 (0)1733 345581
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