Sir Anthony Hidden, who has died aged 79, was a prominent QC – and later a High Court judge – whose report into the Clapham train crash of December 12 1988 in which 35 people were killed and 132 injured forced British Rail to overhaul its safety culture.
Hidden was not an expert on railways; indeed he was best known for having successfully prosecuted Lester Piggott for tax evasion the year before. But his report got to the heart of the matter, and precipitated important changes.
The 57 days of hearings between February and June 1989, with more than 100 witnesses questioned, confirmed BR’s immediate conclusion that the crash had been caused by a redundant wire in a signal box, left live by technicians modernising the system....
