Car driver charged over deaths in British rail crash

LONDON - The driver of the Land Rover at the heart of the Selby rail disaster in Britain has been charged with causing the death of the 10 people killed in the February 28 crash.

Gary Hart's vehicle careered down a rail embankment off the M62, ended up on the east coast main line and set off a catastrophic series of events that resulted in a devastating high-speed train collision.

Mr Hart, 36, who has two children and lives in Strubby, Lincolnshire, was released on police bail yesterday to appear before Selby magistrates' court on May 17 on a single dangerous driving charge relating to all 10 deaths.

Mr Hart was too traumatised to be interviewed after the accident, but police later interrogated him several times.

Papers are understood to have been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service within the past two weeks.

Immediately after the crash, which happened at 6.12am near the village of Great Heck, Mr Hart said he believed a tyre had blown on his vehicle.

He vehemently denied suggestions that he had fallen asleep at the wheel.

The front of the Land Rover, which had been towing a trailer with a Renault car on it, was completely destroyed when the express train smashed into it. But police investigators have since pieced it together after a painstaking search of the site.

The impact with the vehicle derailed the 04.45am Newcastle to London Great North Eastern Railway express carrying about 100 people.

The GNER service then smashed almost head-on into a freight train laden with about 1,000 tons of coal in 17 wagons. The impact killed 10 people and injured 76.

Mr Hart was reported to have telephoned police on his mobile to warn of the danger, but within 60 seconds his vehicle was struck by the express train.

An official interim accident report into the crash described it as a "wholly exceptional" accident that the rail industry could do nothing to prevent.

- INDEPENDENT