The Ladbroke Grove train crash occurred 20 years ago on 5 October 1999. Thirty-one people died and more than 250 were injured. It was the last of a series of serious accidents. Since then the safety record of British railways has been among the best in the world.

The Piper Alpha disaster killed over 150 oil workers a decade earlier. As with the Ladbroke Grove crash, there has been no similar accident since that event.

Lord Cullen, chairman of the Ladbroke Grove crash inquiry, listens to closing submissions to the inquiry in Westminster Central Hall on 27 July 2000. Photograph: Ian Nicholson/PA

In both cases, the public inquiry into the disasters was chaired by Lord Cullen, a senior Scottish judge. He also ran the inquiry into the Dunblane school shooting. To the best of my knowledge, no child has been injured by a gun in a school in the UK since.

As someone injured in the train crash, I want to record my appreciation for Lord Cullen’s thorough and painstaking work into these three disasters. I know that his investigations resulted in major changes to safety practices on the railways. His fair-minded rigour has probably saved hundreds of lives across the UK. On the anniversary of the awful accident at Ladbroke Grove, we should celebrate his success.

Chris Goodall

Oxford

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