AT LEAST one person was killed and over 80 people injured early last night after a commuter train crashed into a empty freight train near Watford Junction in Hertfordshire.
Within minutes of the accident, Watford General hospital was placed on "emergency alert" as police closed all the roads in the surrounding area to allow ambulances through. Over 700 emergency services personnel were, called to the scene, immediately creating a field hospital in a park by the railway line to attend to the seriously wounded.
Mr Mike Kerrigan, a spokesman for the hospital, said he was unable to confirm reports that a second person had died but staff estimated that there were at least 70 hurt, of whom around 27 people were seriously injured.
This is an emergency situation. The walking wounded are suffering from cuts and bruises to the limbs. I have seen several people on stretchers with serious head injuries and one man has a very bad eye injury. The major trauma cases will arrive at the hospital as soon as the ambulance staff have dealt with them at the scene and are able to move them," Mr Kerrigan said.
The accident happened at about 5.28 p.m., at the height of the rush hour, when the 5.04 p.m. four coach commuter train, carrying 400 passengers from London Euston to Milton Keynes, collided head on with an empty stock train, travelling in the opposite direction from Bletchley to Euston.
Within minutes of the accident the emergency services arrived on the scene. Two hours after the collision over 40 passengers, including one of the train drivers, still remained trapped in the wreckage. Both the train engines were lying on their sides, one in a precarious position, blocking all the railway lines into London. A second carriage, full of passengers, had tumbled 30 to 40 feet down an embankment, bringing down over head power lines.
A spokeswoman lord Hertfordshire Ambulance Service said they had been informed of the accident by a member of the public who had reported seeing smoke rising from the railway track. "After further reports we immediately sent seven ambulances to the incident and have requested five back up vehicles from London as well," she said.
After describing the rescue operation as "big" a spokeswoman for Hertfordshire police said it was too early to state exactly what had caused the accident. "All we can said is that there appeared to have been a head on crash between two trains but we have no information as to how it occurred. All the available officers are currently involved in the rescue operation," she added.
Three hours after the accident, Railtrack announced that two inspectors had been sent to the scene to begin an immediate investigation. North London Railways, which has owned the franchise for the Watford line service since 1994, said the commuter train would not have been travelling at speed because it had only just pulled out of Watford Junction station.
One eyewitness, Mrs Mary Hefferman, said both trains appeared to be travelling at speed. "They were moving quite fast towards each other then there was the almighty crash and there were sparks and smoke and wires everywhere. They both seemed to go right up in the air and one toppled over on to the embankment," she said.