Artist’s Tube tunnel death was accidental, inquest rules

An artist who died in a Tube tunnel after a night out in London was not suicidal and her death was accidental, a coroner has ruled.

Sarah Cunningham, 31, was hit by a northbound Northern line train after stepping on to the track and walking down a tunnel at Chalk Farm station at about 03:30 GMT on 2 November last year.

Ms Cunningham’s friends and family told the inquest at Poplar Coroner’s Court she was looking forward to the future and was thriving as an artist.

She had been out with a group in Camden on the evening she died, and was “drunk but not very drunk”, witnesses said.

Her father Edward Cunningham told the inquest that his daughter was “bubbly, friendly and very sharp” as well as “kind, loving, silly and empathic”.

She “found the natural world beautiful, she was a source of light and saw the world in a way others didn’t”.

Mr Cunningham said she was not suicidal.

He said when she was in her early teens “she had a low period driven by a break up” and had two attempts to take her own life.

“On one occasion she jumped out of a window and broke both of her ankles, on another she took some pills,” he said.

“They were cries for help – which she got. Ever since then she has never tried to harm herself.”

A forensic toxicologist told the inquest that while it was not possible to determine the amounts of alcohol and drugs in the body, he could say that Ms Cunningham had used cocaine and ketamine before her death.

Dale Smith, from Transport for London (TfL), told the inquest an internal investigation had been carried out and they would “take forward” any recommendations made by the coroner as a result of Ms Cunningham’s death.

Although she had been seen by a member of TfL staff, she exhibited no behaviour that would raise concerns, the inquest heard.

A staff member checked the platform Ms Cunningham was seen on, and as a train had just pulled away, assumed she had boarded it.

In fact, she had walked along the tracks and was in a tunnel when she was hit by a train.

Her body was discovered about 245ft (75m) into the tunnel just after 01:30 GMT on 4 November.