One dead but dozens escape injury as 100mph train hits car

Dozens of train passengers were lucky to escape last night after an express train travelling at 100mph derailed when it hit a car that had been driven on to the tracks.

The crash killed the driver of the car but none of the 74 passengers onboard the 14.25 Plymouth to Edinburgh service was hurt.

The train was approaching York and slowing down from its top speed of 125mph when it hit the car just before 9pm.

The collision, near Copmanthorpe, took place about 20 miles from Great Heck, near Selby, where a Land Rover fell on the rail track in 2001, causing a derailment that left ten people dead.

Last night emergency workers were leading passengers to safety and the train driver was being treated for shock.

The British Transport Police said that the East Coast Main Line between York and Leeds would be closed indefinitely. They confirmed that they had started an investigation into the incident.

Tony Lidgate, a spokesman for North Yorkshire Police, said that the people of North Yorkshire still have “very, very vivid memories of the tragedy at Great Heck. Many people will be thanking their lucky stars.”

Arthur Leathley, a spokesman for Virgin Trains, said that it was amazing that the train had stayed upright. He said that the crumple zone at the front of the vehicle appeared to have absorbed the force of the impact with the car.

“The front wheels of the train’s leading carriage have come off the rails. But the amazing thing is that the train, travelling at 100mph, has stayed upright,” he said.

“These trains can do 125mph, but it was slowing down as it came into York. These Voyager trains are some of the newest on the network, and they underwent a lot of crash testing before they came into service.

“There is a crumple zone in the nose of the train that is designed to absorb a lot of the force of any impact and it appears that this is exactly what happened.”

Virgin said it was too early to say whether the car driver had been speeding. It is understood that the train had pushed the car for up to a mile along the rail track before coming to a halt.

“A car has come through a fence by the line but as yet we don’t know how or why,” the company said.

Sergeant Rick Hall, of North Yorkshire Police, said that it was not yet known how the car came to be on the track. A fire brigade spokesman said: “We have sent four appliances and a heavy rescue unit and a specialist lighting crew.”

Ten people died and more than 70 were injured in the Great Heck crash when a southbound GNER express train collided with the Land Rover before being deflected into the path of a northbound coal train. The two trains met head on at a combined speed of 147mph.

The prosecution maintained throughout Hart’s trial that the construction company boss from Strubby, Lincolnshire, had fallen asleep at the wheel after spending five hours through the night talking on the phone to a woman he had contacted through an Internet dating agency.

Hart said in his defence that something forced his Land Rover to swerve, sending it and the estate car it was towing down an embankment on to the track. Hart served half of a five-year sentence for causing the deaths by dangerous driving. He later lost an attempt in the Court of Appeal to challenge his conviction.

An inquest later ruled that the six passengers and four railcrew had been unlawfully killed.

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