Sarah de Lagarde has launched a legal case

A TUBE safety campaigner who lost her leg and arm after being hit by tube trains says AI tech announcements, platform guards and protective screens should be installed in underground stations to stop people getting injured on the tracks.

Sarah de Lagarde, who lives in Camden Town, was speaking to the New Journal following the “unexpected” death of a talented painter Sarah Cunningham in Chalk Farm tube station in the early hours of Monday morning.

The circumstances are under investigation but the inquiry will look at whether she fell onto the tracks or walked into the tunnel.

Artist Sarah Cunningham  [George Darrell, courtesy of Lisson Gallery]

Ms de Lagarde, who is in a legal battle with Transport for London over liability for her shocking life-changing injuries on the Northern Line, said this week: “I’m totally heartbroken that these incidents keep happening. In the US this would be classified as corporate manslaughter.”

She said she had been contacted by hundreds of people who had suffered severe injuries on the tube tracks as part of her campaign to make the network a safer place for all. Last month she held a press conference about what she described as a “TfL safety scandal” revealing statistics showing 22 people each month suffer life-altering injuries or die from accidents on the London Underground.

The New Journal has followed Ms de Lagarde’s story since the night in September 2022 when she injured herself after falling onto the tracks at High Barnet, before being run over by two tube trains.

She has miraculously survived and – after being fitted with a futuristic bionic arm with AI tech, and a prothetic leg – described herself as “80 percent human, 20 percent robot”. She fought back to scale Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, with her husband and two children, in August.

Backed by Leigh Day law firm, her legal claim accuses TfL of a series of failings and calls for the authority to improve safety for all passengers who use the network.

SEE ALSO TRIBUTES TO ARTIST SARAH CUNNINGHAM AFTER TRAGIC END TO SEARCH

Ms de Lagarde said: “In my view TfL needs to be held accountable. ⁠TfL needs to admit these incidents are too frequent and wholly avoidable. “⁠TfL needs to create platform guard jobs to help passengers at all stations. ⁠TfL needs to employ AI alerts to protect commuters when in danger. TfL needs to close the gap at all stations or put up screens/barriers. Central government needs to step in to ensure all steps are implemented and give execution power to regulators to ensure punitive measures are taken. ⁠Victims should be apologised to and compensated. There should be ⁠mandatory safety training for all staff every six months.”

She added: “Those safety changes would also prevent suicides. There’s a company that offers AI-supported solutions to detect commuters in difficulty including audio and visual sensors that alert staff, police and emergency services. It’s an easy and cost-effective solution.”

She said cost of bringing required safety changes on the tube should not be heaped on passengers through ticket price increases, adding: “TfL need to provide tangible evidence that its culture is changed to be commuter-centric rather than focused on profit.”

Responding to Ms de Lagarde’s safety campaign launch last month, TfL’s chief safety officer Lilli Matson said: “We are committed to learning from every incident and use a rigorous evidence-based approach to this, using data and incident reports to put in place changes through targeted programmes that make the transport network safer for everyone. “Accurate reporting and transparency are a vital part of our industry-leading approach to safety, and we are committed to making data publicly available, including through our website.”

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