A drunk driver’s speeding goods train demolished a main-line commuter station, leaving this scene of devastation 15 years ago.

British Rail driver Graham Barnes had drunk the equivalent of a bottle of vodka when his steel-laden goods train rolled into Maidstone East Station at 2.12am on Monday September 6, 1993.

With its brakes set incorrectly for the heavy load, the locomotive hit a curve in the tracks at Maidstone at such speed that the wagons overturned, smashing into the platform, demolishing buildings and causing more than £2 million of damage to the station and rolling stock.

Commuters arriving later that morning were shocked to discover their station wrecked, and had to use special bus services to get to nearby stations.

South Eastern Trains spent £700,000 and took seven months to repair damage and refurbish the station.

British Rail launched an immediate inquiry following the crash and driver Graham Barnes was dismissed; he would later be jailed for 12 months for endangering the safety of passengers, causing criminal damage and driving with excess alcohol.

29-year-old Daniel Simms - then a pupil at St Simon Stock School - remembered how the accident disrupted journeys from his home in Lenham to school in Maidstone for months afterwards.

“All of us school children had to get the bus until the station was repaired” he said, “it was pretty annoying because it took at least twice as long as the train.

“We had to get up earlier for school and I got home later all thanks to what was an avoidable accident.

“On the up side they made the platform longer and put in a vending machine, so every cloud has a silver lining.”