Surviving train driver to be quizzed about horror crash

A train driver in the head-on crash that killed at least 18 people near Brussels survived by jumping clear of the cab, railway officials said today.

Detectives will interview the man about how his train went through a red light as soon as he recovers sufficiently.

Jochen Goovaerts, of SNCB, the Belgian state railway, said: "We are certain he jumped from the train just before impact."

Luciaan Spiessens, a retired station manager who was in the first carriage, described the moment the driver sounded the train's horn. "A fraction of a second later he hit the emergency brake, then the driver jumped from the door of his cab into the gangway.

"When I was freed a little while later I saw the driver standing outside the train. He was crying, probably because he then began to fully realise what had happened."

Eurostar trains from London to Brussels were suspended for a third day, as were high-speed services to Paris.

Rail management company Infrabel said it would need three days to inspect the lines once the wreckage is removed, meaning trains are likely to be disrupted for the rest of the week.

The trains' black boxes will be checked to determine whether mechanical failure, human error or freezing weather was responsible for the crash near the suburban station of Halle, nine miles south of Brussels.

Belgian railway spokesman Jochen Goovaerts said the boxes, which record all technical data of the journeys, should reveal how fast the trains were moving when they collided.

"There are a lot of possible explanations to this tragedies. We don't want to put the blame where it doesn't belong," he said.