Publicité
Probe launched after train crash kills six
Par
Partager cet article
Probe launched after train crash kills six
Police have begun a detailed investigation into a high-speed train crash which killed six people and injured many more. Carrying 300 passengers, the train ploughed into a car at a level crossing and flew off the rails near the village of Ufton Nervet in Berkshire on Saturday.
Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter of British Transport Police said: “It is quite remarkable...if you look at the scene.. that so many people managed to escape”. Trotter promised a “meticulous investigation”into the crash.
Police said one of the six killed was in the car. The train’s operator First Great Western, a subsidiary of rail and bus operator FirstGroup, said the train driver was another of those killed.
There was no indication that infrastructure failure or railway staff were responsible for the crash. Rail analysts said the train from London’s Paddington station to Plymouth would have been travelling at 100 miles per hour as it approached the crossing and passengers said it braked hard just before the crash.
The RMT union called for the elimination of level crossings on high-speed rail lines. “The Railways Inspectorate has already identified level crossings as the biggest single danger on today’s railway network”.
Rail crashes blamed on shoddy maintenance and poor driver training over the past five years have killed 42 people. 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
Kate KELLAND
Publicité
Publicité
Les plus récents
