Safety on the London Underground

This article is primarily concerned with accidents on the London Underground network, which carries around a billion passengers a year. Statistically, there is just one fatal accident for every 300 million journeys. There are several safety warnings given to passengers, such as the traditional 'mind the gap' announcement and the regular announcements for passengers to keep behind the yellow line. Relatively few accidents are caused by overcrowding on the platforms, and staff monitor platforms and passageways at busy times preventing people entering the system if they become overcrowded.

Most fatalities on the network are suicides. Most platforms at deep tube stations have pits beneath the track, originally constructed to aid drainage of water from the platforms, but they also help prevent death or serious injury when a passenger falls or jumps in front of a train and aid access to the casualty. These pits are officially called "anti-suicide pits", colloquially "suicide pits" or "dead man's trenches". A person jumping or falling in front of a train is sometimes referred to by staff as a "one under". London Underground has a specialist therapy unit to deal with drivers' post-traumatic stress resulting from someone jumping under their train. Several stations on the Jubilee line extension are fitted with platform edge doors, which prevent people from falling or jumping onto the tracks.

Terrorism in the London Underground has been a major concern because the Underground's importance makes it a prime target for attacks. Many warnings and several attacks, some successful, have been made on the Underground, the most recent on 21 July 2005, although in that case only the detonators exploded. The most recent attack causing damage was on 7 July 2005, when three suicide bombers blew themselves up on three trains. The earliest attack on the London Underground was in 1885, when a bomb exploded on a Metropolitan line train at Euston Square station. The Provisional IRA (and its predecessors) carried out over ten separate attacks between 1939 and 1993. As a response to growing 'Mumbai-Style' terrorist attack threats, the British Transport Police has its own detachment of armed officers who will regularly patrol both the Undergrounds stations and its trains.

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