UK level crossing accident

[John Ashworth]

Passenger Fighting For Life After Rail Crash

5:44am UK, Wednesday August 18, 2010
Rob Cole, Sky News Online

One person is fighting for their life this morning after a train ploughed into a lorry on an unmanned rail crossing.

Twenty people were injured after the collision in Suffolk, which is under investigation.

The 38-year-old driver of the lorry, a sewage tanker that was ripped apart by the collision, was arrested on suspicion of several railway safety offences.

The front carriage of the two-car National Express East Anglia service, which was carrying 21 passengers, derailed after the crash at Little Cornard near Sudbury, Suffolk, yesterday evening.

Witnesses spoke of hearing a sound like a bomb explosion then seeing dazed, bleeding passengers wandering around next to the track with the front carriage perched on the edge of a ditch.

Sky News reporter Mark Stone, at the scene, said it was remarkable more people were not seriously hurt.

"It is remarkable this incident was not much, much worse," he said.

"If it had been a bigger train it could have been worse, especially if the carriage had rolled over into the ditch."

British Transport Police (BTP) said one person trapped on the train received life-threatening injuries and is in intensive care.

Five people remained in hospital overnight with non-serious injuries.

Fifteen have been described as "walking wounded".

The driver of the 1731 Sudbury to Marks Tey service, who witnesses said was Polish, suffered a suspected fractured vertebrae, and is being treated at Colchester General Hospital.

The crossing is a user-worked crossing with gates and telephone.

It is understood the Network Rail signaller did not receive a phone call from the user of the crossing.

"The driver should have used the telephone to check the line was clear and then open the gates themselves," said Stone

"It does not appear this happened."

All patients were taken to hospital - the majority to Colchester General Hospital, one or two to West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and one of the more seriously injured by air to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

Train services have been replaced by a bus service on the Sudbury to Marks Tey route with the line unlikely to reopen before Friday.


Farm lorry driver arrested after collision with train injures 21

Two suffer life-threatening injuries and 19 others hurt in incident at Suffolk rail crossing

* James Meikle
* The Guardian, Wednesday 18 August 2010

Two people suffered life-threatening injuries and 19 others were hurt when a train and a lorry collided at an unmanned rail crossing yesterday.

An air ambulance was involved in the rescue as all were taken to one of three hospitals after the accident near the village of Little Cornard, near Sudbury, Suffolk.

The driver of the lorry, a sewage tanker used for farm slurry, was arrested by police on suspicion of dangerous driving.

Network Rail said the user-worked crossing had gates and a telephone but its signaller had not received a phone call. The lorry was struck by the 17.31 National Express East Anglia service from Sudbury to Marks Tey. The train was believed to be carrying around 20 passengers.

Superintendent Phil Trendall of British transport police said: "Clearly if the train had turned over the injuries could have been greater. We are just grateful they were no greater in seriousness or number." Jack Barnett, 65, a retired lorry driver who lives about 100 yards from the scene, said: "There was a very, very loud bang. I've never heard anything like it. I thought it was an aeroplane crash or a bomb going off."

"The tanker was cut in half. There was sewage over the line … The two carriages went through the tanker, so one half was on one side of the line and one on the other. The driver of the tanker was very lucky not to have been killed."

Janet Crosbie, who lives just 30 yards away, said she took blankets to help those hurt. "There were some young girls there aged about 20, who were shocked and cold. One had a bloody nose, one had chipped a bit off a tooth. There was a man who seemed to have internal injuries. At one point he seemed OK, then he deteriorated and was taken off to hospital."

The ambulance service said it had dealt with 18 casualties. The two most seriously hurt had been trapped on the train while 14 were described as "walking wounded".Most of those injured were taken to Colchester general hospital but two went to Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, and others to West Suffolk hospital, Bury St Edmunds.

[allanroy]

found a video here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11006977