Sarah de Lagarde with family and friends outside the Royal Courts of Justice

A “BIONIC” woman who had to have two limbs amputated after being run over by two tube trains lodged a legal case against Transport for London at the High Court yesterday (Wednesday).

Sarah de Lagarde, from Camden Town, spoke about how she fell on to the Northern line tracks and called for a comprehensive review of safety, saying she had spoken to hundreds of people warning of safety failures on London Underground.

Speaking on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice, she said TfL failed to take “any moral or legal responsibility” for her injuries and was guilty of “victim-blaming”.

Ms de Lagarde said: “Twenty-two tonnes of steel crushed my limbs. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I remained on the tracks undetected until the second train came into the station, crushing me for a second time.

“The vision of those train lights coming towards me, and these big wheels of steel – the noise still haunts me till this day.”

Ms de Lagarde described slipping on the platform at High Barnet tube station in September 2022, falling “into the darkness” in the gap between the train and the platform. Since the accident, the New Journal has reported on Ms de Lagarde’s long road to recovery, which has involved extensive physiotherapy and a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for prosthetic limbs.

Ms de Lagarde said she spent 15 minutes on the tracks before anyone came to help her, and claims TfL staff “fumbled the rescue attempts” when she was eventually discovered.

She said: “They concluded that I fell because I was drunk and wearing high heels, neither of which were true – that is victim-blaming – TfL simply say that this was a series of unfortunate and unique events… TfL denies any moral or legal responsibility for my accident.”

She said London mayor Sadiq Khan, chairman of TfL, had refused to meet with her to discuss “safety issues” across the transport network.

Ms de Lagarde said people were still regularly falling between the gaps in tube stations, citing the death of pensioner Brian Mitchell who fell on the tracks at Stratford station on Boxing Day.

She said: “Since my accident, I have been contacted by hundreds of people who have either been injured or have experienced a near-miss.

“TfL seem to think that this number of incidents is acceptable when weighed against the number of people that travel every day… to be clear, these statistics are not just numbers. They are human beings.”

She said: “We need there to be an independent and comprehensive review of TfL safety procedures so that meaningful lessons can be learned.”

Ms de Lagarde told the New Journal: “It’s too late for me. My limbs will never grow back, but there are so many other people that commute every day, who deserve better.”

She said the accident had a disastrous impact on her children.

“They grew up quickly. I feel guilty that I robbed them of the innocence of childhood: they’ve become self-sufficient, they can cook for themselves, they can organise themselves, because I can’t do that anymore,” she said.

“But the cracks have started to show about 9 to 12 months later: they’ve got anxiety, stress points, delayed PTSD, short-term memory issues. It has a big impact… it’s a long process but we’re together, the [family], and that’s all that matters.”

Ms de Lagarde is represented by the legal firm Leigh Day.

Nick Dent, director of customer operations at London Underground, said: “TfL is responding to a legal claim which has been brought by solicitors on behalf of Sarah de Lagarde and I am not in a position to comment publicly further.

“However, our thoughts continue to be with Sarah and her family following the devastating incident at High Barnet station and we have offered her direct support through the Sarah Hope Line.

“Safety is our top priority and we continue to take every possible measure to learn from any incident and put in place appropriate improvements.”

A spokesperson for the mayor said: “The mayor’s thoughts remain with Sarah and her loved ones. He has asked to be kept updated and is very keen to meet with Sarah once the claim is resolved.”