Investigators and police officers work at the scene where two East Midlands Railway trains collided near Bedford, Britain, Friday. A train driver has died and at least 80 people have been injured in the crash. According to the ambulance service 33 of the injured are in a serious condition. Nine are still critical as of Saturday morning. Photo by Tolga Akmen/EPA
June 20 (UPI) — A train driver is dead and nine people are still in critical condition after two passenger trains collided in England.
About 80 people were injured in the crash Friday evening. As of Saturday morning, 28 were still hospitalized after a moving train crashed into a stopped train on the tracks in Bedford, England, north of London.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said it was “devastated to learn that a train driver and former RMT rep has tragically died,” The Times of London reported.
Eddie Dempsey, RMT general secretary, wrote on X: “The thoughts of RMT are with their family, friends, colleagues and the ASLEF trade union at this awful time.”
The trains collided in Bedford, one from Corby and the other from Nottingham en route to London St. Pancras.
One passenger told The Times that the scene was “carnage.”
“We had to walk through farmers’ fields to get to an A-road,” he said. “There is a huge emergency service presence and loads of air ambulances.”
Another unidentified passenger told the times that it looked like an explosion.
“The front carriage collided into the front of another one, and when I got up I saw all of the chairs everywhere and it felt like I’d been in a bomb explosion. When I got up I saw people with bloodied faces and people’s legs looked broken, and there was smoke everywhere,” the passenger said.
Passenger Pete Knapp added that he saw smoke in the cabin.
“There was a moment of being flung into the chair in front, and then I saw smoke. People were crying, screaming, people were so scared and confused,” Knapp said.
A helicopter arrived within about 5 or 10 minutes, he added. Emergency services had to cut through a hedge with shears to reach the area, and he said passengers were triaged into different groups based on their injuries.
“I was triaged by some paramedics and they said that I had a muscular damage to my back and the gouges on my shins, they hadn’t broken my legs so hopefully they will heal over time. I’m extremely grateful for that because so many people in that carriage I was in had their legs broken, and there was blood everywhere and people crying and screaming.”