Police investigate suicide cause for rail crash

The high-speed train crash that killed seven and injured scores of passengers may have been as a result of the car driver’s attempt to commit suicide.

All the carriages of the train which was carrying some 300 passengers were completely derailed when it hit a car at a level crossing near the village of Ufton Nervet in Berkshire on Saturday. As the first names of those killed in the tragedy were named today it emerged that among the dead were a mother and her nine-year-old daughter.

British Transport Police Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter said that the car had been stopped at the crossing prior to the crash and in an interview for BBC Radio said that the action may have been deliberate. But he said that a mechanical failure at the half-barrier crossing or a fault in the car could not be ruled out at this stage of the inquiry.

An off-duty policeman is understood to have been attempting to alert the rail company via an emergency phone call when the 17:35 London Paddington to Plymouth train hit the vehicle at the rural crossing.

All the carriages of the train, which could have been travelling at up to 100mph, where derailed in the crash.

Six people, including the train driver and the car driver, are known to have died at the scene, a seventh died later in hospital from injuries sustained in the crash. Four of the 18 people in hospital following the incident are said to be in a “serious” condition.

Photographs of the car involved in the crash indicate that the vehicle had sustained a serious end-on, rather than a side-on impact. However, reports that the driver of the vehicle had informed the off-duty police officer that he wanted to die have subsequently been denied.

Cranes will be erected on the site today to remove the wreckage of the train. In a statement the train company, First Great Western, expressed shock and sadness at the crash and said: “We are working with the emergency services to do all that we can to help deal with this situation and assist our customers and staff."

Work at the site will mean that a special bus service will be in operation between Newbury and Didcot Parkway and also Swindon and Pewsey.

Services between the West of England and London, which will use an alternative route with extended journey times, are not expected to return to normal for several days.

(SP/MB)