One person has died and 89 people have been injured after two trains collided near Bedford in England during the evening rush hour. British Transport Police confirmed the fatality, while the East of England Ambulance Service said 11 of the injured had very serious injuries and another 22 were seriously hurt. Emergency services declared a major incident in what was described as potentially one of Britain's worst ever train disasters.
According to the coverage, the collision happened near Elstow Interchange, about two miles south of Bedford Town Centre, at around 5.15pm. It involved two East Midlands train services, one of which was stopped on the line. The location placed the crash on a busy stretch of railway into London.
Officials said a service that had set off from Corby, having called at Kettering on the way, struck the back of a stationary train. The information given was that the stationary train had encountered a problem with its automatic warning system and had reported a failure. The serious casualties were understood to be on the train that was moving when it struck the stopped service.
The East of England Ambulance Service said it had sent a large number of resources to what it described as a major incident on the railway. That included multiple air ambulances and a hazardous area response team, and one air ambulance was reported to have landed in a nearby field. The service said it had treated 89 injured people in total, with 11 left with very serious injuries and 22 seriously injured. By the following morning, British Transport Police Chief Constable Lucy D'Orsi said more than 80 people had been treated at hospital, with 28 still admitted and nine of them in a critical condition.
Footage from the scene showed injured passengers on the trains, and the coverage carried warnings that the images were distressing. Relatives and friends of those injured were asked not to travel to the scene. Bedfordshire Police issued a statement as the response continued.
Two hospitals in the area asked the public to stay away from their emergency departments to make way for crash victims. Those were Bedford Hospital and the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital. The appeals underscored the scale of the casualties being brought in.
The RMT rail union said it was devastated to learn that the person who died was a train driver and a former RMT representative, and it passed on its thoughts to those affected. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was deeply concerned by the reports of the collision, while Health Secretary James Murray said he was being kept updated and confirmed that a number of people had been injured. Officials urged people to avoid the area as crews worked at the scene. At an official multi-agency briefing, East Midlands Railway said its 1640 Corby to St Pancras service had collided with its 1550 Nottingham to St Pancras service at Bedford South, while Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was called at 5.14pm and sent more than 20 appliances and over 70 firefighters, with no fire breaking out. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch and the British Transport Police have begun investigating the cause.
In the days after the collision, Network Rail described the crash as a tragic isolated incident, as the focus shifted to the recovery effort and to restoring the line. The company said rail services would be disrupted until June 28 while a complex operation to remove the damaged trains and carriages from the track continued. The investigations by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and the British Transport Police into exactly what caused the collision remained ongoing.
In an update on Sunday, the train driver who was killed in the collision was named as Sean Burton. His family asked for their privacy to be respected as they begin to come to terms with the devastating loss, while thoughts and tributes were also extended to his colleagues at East Midlands Railway.