TWENTY-FIVE years ago, five people were killed and dozens of others injured when two trains crashed close to Purley Station.
On a rainy Saturday at 1.39pm on March 4, 1989, the 12.17pm express from Littlehampton to Victoria smashed into the back of a train travelling from Horsham to central London.
The Horsham train careered off the rails and lurched down the embankment towards the houses in Glenn Avenue.
Two people were killed instantly, and another three died from their injuries at Mayday Hospital.
They were Colin Clark, 55, and 60-year-old Eric Simper, from Worthing; Janet Taylor, 79, and Edith Greene, 74, from Hove; and Veronica Salisbury.
More than 90 others were seriously injured in the crash.
The driver of the Littlehampton train, Robert Morgan, pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter and spent four months in jail although his conviction was quashed in 2007 when another near-miss in 1991 prompted a safety review.
He died two years later in a boating accident on the Isle of Wight at the age of 66.
The crash caused chaos in the streets of Purley near the railway tracks as residents rushed to lend their hands to an emergency response effort.
'It doesn't get easier, you just get on with it' COLIN Clark was 55 when he lost his life in the Purley rail crash. His wife, Carol, was sitting beside him when the train began shuddering and making a terrible noise. "I said to him, 'Colin, the train is going to turn over', and the next thing I knew I was in an operating theatre," said Mrs Clark, 69. "I said to the surgeons there, 'My husband is dead isn't he?' "And they said yes, he was." The pair had been married for 10 years when Colin died. "It doesn't get any easier, all of this rubbish about time heals," Mrs Clark said. "You just have to get on with what you have to do. When you are a parent, you don't have a choice." Colin left behind two daughters with Carol. He died the same day as his youngest's second birthday. His older daughter was aged nine. Mrs Clark said: "She remembers him well. They have both done remarkably well. I am very proud of both of them." The couple, from Worthing, were travelling somewhere secret on the day of the crash. "We had left the children behind and were travelling somewhere secret; we've never told anyone where," she added. Mrs Clark was severely injured down the right side of her body and was in hospital for two weeks.