The Queen has sent a message of sympathy to relatives of the dead, and to the injured. In a message to the Transport Secretary, Mr Paul Channon, she said she was shocked and saddened by the news. She asked Mr Channon to convey her deepest sympathy to the bereaved and to all those who were hurt. This afternoon, the Prime Minister went to the Mayday Hospital in Croydon, where she spent an hour and a half speaking to the staff, including those in the accident and emergency department, before going to see the injured.
Afterwards, Mrs. Thatcher paid tribute to the emergency services and medical staff at the hospital, and said that in her conversations with the patients, she had recalled her own experience after the Brighton bombing. Such tragedies, she said, put everything else in life into perspective. Mrs Thatcher was then asked what her feelings were when she was told of the crash: [end p1]
Thatcher
I shared exactly the same feelings as everyone else. Oh! Not again! Because we hadn't had a bad period for train crashes and Clapham was a very bad one, and we felt that they don't usually happen again very quickly, and so it was almost a sense of disbelief.
Q
Should the Clapham inquiry be widened, or will you be holding another inquiry?
Thatcher
I think we should just strain to find out what went wrong and to see that if it has any wider implications, of course we shall, so will British Rail. Everyone is very anxious, particularly having had two, promise to find out what it was that went wrong and no stone will be left unturned.