Train driver relives 95mph killer crash when express ‘leapt into air’

A TRAIN driver has described how his locomotive “leapt in the air” and he knew he was in “big bother” as he was tossed around the cab after the train came off the rails at faulty points.

Iain Black, from Dumbarton, was driving the train when it careered off the track at 95mph in Cumbria on 23 February, 2007.

Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died from her injuries hours after the Virgin Pendolino London to Glasgow express derailed on the west coast main line near the remote village of Grayrigg at 8:12pm.

All eight carriages of the Class 390 tilting train were derailed and 86 passengers and two crew among the 105 people aboard were injured.

Mr Black, 50, who had been driving trains for seven years, took over the controls at Preston, an inquest heard yesterday.

He said the three-year-old train was in perfect working order and reached speeds of up to 125mph on the route north.

After slowing slightly to go through Oxenholme Station he set the automatic speed control to 95mph as the train wound its way through the countryside approaching the left-hand bend where the points were.

Jonathan Hough, barrister to assist the coroner, asked the witness what happened as his train passed over the points.

“First I was forced into the upright position. The train leapt into the air,” he said. “You do get bumps and wee noises on trains, but I knew immediately, without a shadow of a doubt, I was in big bother. The train leapt into the air and came down pretty solid.

“My impression was I had veered off the line. It was very quick, I had to stand up, the next recollection I don’t know how I got there, I was wedged on the dashboard, between the dashboard and the window screen looking back at my seat.”

Mr Black broke his neck in the crash, having been knocked out by hitting the ceiling before landing on the dashboard.

Earlier yesterday, the inquest heard how Mrs Masson’s daughter called out “Mum! Mum! Mum!” as her mother lay fatally injured next to her.

Mrs Masson, known as Peggy, boarded the train at Preston, accompanied by her daughter and her husband Richard Langley.

The pensioner had been staying with her daughter and son-in-law for a week and they were accompanying her back home.

A statement from Mr Langley, who has since died, but not from injuries caused in the accident, was read, telling how after taking their seats in the first carriage chaos erupted just over 30 minutes into their journey.

“The next thing I recall is being six feet in the air,” his statement read.

“I was wedged in by the coach side and a table and I had the round table pole between my legs. The train was on its side.

“I remember it was dark outside but the carriage was quite brightly lit.”

Drifting in and out of consciousness, Mr Langley, 63, a retired train conductor, ended up being wedged in between a table and the carriage wall as the carriage came to rest on its side.

“Margaret was lying on her stomach face down. Peggy was lying directly across Margaret, on her stomach face down.

“Peggy was shouting, ‘Margaret! Margaret! Margaret!’ and Margaret was just saying, ‘Mum! Mum! Mum!’ I think Peggy called out on two other occasions.”

Mr Langley was airlifted to hospital where he had a life-saving operation after seriously injuring his lung. Mrs Masson was taken by helicopter to the Royal Lancaster Hospital, but died from her injuries at 11 that night.

The hearing, in Kendal, continues.