Friends of the Rail Forum

Driver injured in train accident

A train driver was hurt and rail services were disrupted when a lorry crashed into a footbridge bringing the structure down on to a line.

The wreckage, at Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, was hit by a train travelling from Nottingham to Norwich.

Six passengers were on the train, but none were injured. The train driver, who suffered leg injuries, was cut free by fire crews.

Trains from Leicester to Loughborough and south from Nottingham were delayed.

An East Midlands Trains spokeswoman said the crash happened at about 0633 GMT and was also affecting services from Sheffield and Nottingham to London.

Leicestershire Police said the accident happened after an engineering works tipper truck hit the bridge.

The train firm spokeswoman said emergency services were at the scene along with Network Rail, but it was not clear how long it would take to clear the line.

The train was still upright on the track, she said.

"The passengers are fine and being helped by staff, but they will be transferred to another train as soon as possible," she said.

She said it was not clear how long the services would be delayed.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/u ... 221590.stm

Published: 2008/02/01 09:23:19 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Up-dates from uk.railway newsgroup:

For those away from television coverage, the story seems to be:

A lorry dislodged the walkway of a footbridge over the MML at Barrow upon Soar just after 0630 this morning. The bridge has a metal-framed walkway that rested on masonry uprights - so far as I can see on the television, a section of the walkway was dislodged and fell on to the track. Other sections of the walkway are still in place.

The media say that an emergency stop message was issued promptly, but the 0613 Nottingham - Norwich worked by 158856 couldn't stop in time and hit the wreckage. There were six passengers on board - none are reported as having serious injuries. One report says that they and the conductor walked about half a mile to Barrow station and were treated there (for shock, presumably) before being carried on from there by taxi.

The lorry driver was trapped, but was quickly released.

The train driver was not so lucky. He was trapped for about three hours. The fireman at the on-site impromptu press conference said that the operation to release him took two hours, partly because of the strength of the train and partly because they had to work carefully because of the driver's injuries. The driver is reported as having serious leg injuries and his condition has been described as critical. Judging by the pictures on the television, the train took a severe blow across the front of the 158 at about the driver's leg level.

The RAIB are on site.

The route between Leicester and Loughborough is closed and looks likely to be for the rest of the day and, possibly, into the weekend, too.

There is a limited service operating between Leicester and London, but with relatively little rolling stock south of Leicester at that time in the morning (and some of that with limited fuel having stabled in London overnight), even an hourly service could be difficult to operate.

...the train derailed but remained upright. Thankfully, it didn't diverge far from the alignment of the track because the front vehicle passed under a road bridge before coming to rest. If the train had moved further to the left (in the direction of travel) it would have hit the upright of the road bridge. The driver wouldn't have stood a chance and I would imagine the injuries to the others on board would have been much worse.

In any event, the rolling stock held up well. ...tributes to the engineers responsible for their structural integrity.

BBC have updated their web site to say that the police are now describing the driver's condition as "stable".