Bad high speed train accident in England

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Reading Topic #1885

Pollard7545Member since Jul-27-04 · 16 postsNov 7, 2004 12:09 PM

Here is from MSNBC. I'm sure you guys over there have more details. I work for AMTRAK so these things are a concern to me as well.Updated: 7:52 p.m. ET Nov. 6, 2004UFTON NERVET, England - A British high-speed passenger train ploughed into a car at a level crossing and flew off the rails on Saturday, killing six people and injuring scores.
“The 1735 train for Plymouth with 300 passengers on board collided with a vehicle at the crossing, completely derailing the train,” said Andy Trotter, deputy chief constable of British Transport Police.Among the scores of injured, 11 were seriously hurt.There was no indication that infrastructure failure or railway staff were responsible for the crash, in a country where rail safety has been a political issue since a series of deadly crashes followed the industry’s privatization in the 1990s.Crashes blamed on shoddy maintenance and poor driver training over the past five years have killed 42 people, shaking up the industry and causing political damage for the government.“There was a big jolt, the train sped up and then turned on its side,” passenger Harriet Myles, 19, told Reuters.“I could hear people screaming and glass breaking. We stayed put for a while. It was so dark we could not move,” she said.Dozens of fire engines and ambulances were rushed to the crash site at Ufton Nervet in rural Berkshire, about 40 miles (65 km) west of London.A Reuters photographer saw a twisted carriage on its side surrounded by searchlights of emergency vehicles.Some victims were trapped for hours. Shortly before midnight police said that they believed no one was left in the wreckage, but they would continue to search through the night.“Conditions down there are very difficult. We’re working in the pitch dark with only spotlights,” an ambulance service spokesman said.Chaotic scene
Jonny Saunders, a BBC correspondent on the train when it crashed, told BBC News 24 television:“We came to a juddering halt. And then suddenly all the lights went off. Screaming and shouting. We were in pitch black and total chaos on the carriage for a few moments.“I was incredibly lucky because the carriage that I was in didn’t actually go over on its side but the carriage in front of me did go over on its side and the carriage behind me went over on its side,” he said.The train from London’s Paddington station to Plymouth in western England crashed shortly after 6 p.m. (1800 GMT). It was operated by First Great Western, a subsidiary of rail and bus operator FirstGroup Plc.Critics say Britain’s privatized railways have lagged far behind other European countries in investment and safety.Two trains crashed at Paddington in 1999 killing 31 people. A government inquiry blamed the crash on faults with the training of drivers at operator Thames Trains.Crashes north of London at Hatfield and Potters Bar in 2000 and 2002 killed 11 people and injured scores. Both were blamed on poor maintenance and led to far-reaching shakeups of the railway system.In February 2001 a Land Rover careered off the road and became lodged on a track at Selby in Yorkshire, northern England. A passenger train hit the automobile, flew off the rails and then hit a coal train.Ten people were killed in that accident and the driver of the Land Rover was jailed for five years.

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England

RE: Bad high speed train accident in England