Lorry plunges on to rail tracks

A lorry careered down an embankment and on to a main London commuter line today where it was hit by a freight train.

The lorry's driver jumped to safety seconds before the collision, just as the car driver did in the Selby disaster in February last year.

A repeat of that disaster, in which 10 people died, was averted when a passenger train, due to pass by the scene of today's crash, was halted just down the line after the alarm was raised.

The collision, on the main Norwich to London line, will reignite safety fears over road parapets being too low to prevent vehicles crashing on to railway tracks.

The incident happened at 5.20am at Lawford between Colchester and Manningtree in Essex. The main lines were blocked, throwing commuter services into chaos while investigators checked the scene.

The lorry driver, who was taken to Colchester Hospital, is reported to have suffered a broken hip. Two people on the train also escaped with minor injuries and are suffering from shock.

Chief Inspector Iain Logan of Essex police said: "Our first thought when we arrived that this had the potential to be so much worse. It truly reminded me of the Selby accident."

The lorry had come from Manningtree and was travelling along the A137 towards Colchester when it reached a bridge over the railway line.

It smashed into a concrete wall and the force of the collision separated its front tractor unit from its trailer and load. The tractor unit then plunged out of control through trees and down an embankment on to the tracks.

The driver struggled to free himself and leapt clear seconds before it was hit by the 1,000-ton 5am Ipswich to Birmingham Freightliner train, which was made up of 17 wagons, two containing "dangerous cargo".

However, unlike the train in the Selby tragedy it did not derail, but it carried the wreckage of the lorry cab half a mile down the London-bound line.

A Railtrack spokesman said: "Our people on the scene say they understand the lorry lost control in wet conditions. The lorry jack-knifed and struck a wall, with the cab jumping over the wall and on to the track."

Maxine Smith, 39, who lives next to the line, said she was woken by a loud crash. "The lorry is now on my front lawn. We heard a mighty bang like an explosion. I rang the emergency services straight away."

Another local resident, Jill Sollars said the bridge was a known blackspot for speeding - so bad that she and her husband kept a pile of blankets by their front door to help drivers involved in crashes.

Anglia and Great Eastern services were badly disrupted by the incident, with trains from London to Ipswich and Norwich-getting no further than Colchester.

But a Railtrack spokesman said there was no damage to the track, and it was hoped that normal services could resume by about midday.

Safety campaigners hit out at the Government earlier this year after it was revealed that 27 cars and lorries had plunged on to railway lines since the Selby disaster.

In January Gary Hart, 37, the motorist who caused the Selby crash was jailed for five years after being found guilty of 10 counts of causing death by dangerous driving after having fallen asleep of the wheel.

His car careered into the path of a GNER express train which was derailed and then hit head-on a freight train coming the other way.

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