Train driver had just two seconds to brake before hitting car

The train driver killed in the Berkshire rail disaster applied his emergency brakes two to three seconds before ploughing into a car parked on the track at a level crossing, an official report revealed yesterday.

The train driver killed in the Berkshire rail disaster applied his emergency brakes two to three seconds before ploughing into a car parked on the track at a level crossing, an official report revealed yesterday.

The 350-ton express smashed the vehicle to pieces, killing its apparently suicidal driver and ended up a quarter of a mile down the line with five passengers dead or fatally injured in the wreckage. Two people later died in hospital.

Derailed by the impact with the car, the accident was "exacerbated'' when the First Great Western train smashed into a set of points and jack-knifed, according to the preliminary investigation by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) rail inspectors. The document points out that the train approaching the crossing at Ufton Nervet came out of a "slight right-hand curve" at 100mph.

Investigators' suspicions that Brian Drysdale, the driver of the car, was intent on killing himself, is supported by the findings. The document said the 48-year-old chef "made no attempt to leave the vehicle" once the barriers on the crossing came down.

Investigators found no evidence of any fault with the actions of the 54-year-old train driver Stanley Martin, his equipment, the signals or the level crossing. An inquest in Reading was told that no alcohol or drugs was found in the body of Mr Drysdale who was fully-clothed at the time of the crash despite reports to the contrary. He had been wearing a seatbelt and the force of the crash caused disruption to his clothing.

An independent tribunal is being set up by the Rail Safety and Standards Board to undertake a more in-depth inquiry. Rail inspectors said the 17.35 train from London to Plymouth started on time and left Reading one minute late at 18.03. Some 1,743 metres before the level crossing, the train automatically triggered a track-side mechanism, which brought the barriers down at Ufton Nervet. It took 39 seconds to reach the crossing where motorists had been given the 27-second minimum warning that a train was approaching. An off-duty policeman saw the car on the line and Mr Drysdale inside it, but he was unable to alert signallers on a trackside telephone in time.

Out of the 180 passengers and four crew on board, 37 were taken to hospital. The inquest was told that Mr Martin died as a result of traumatic asphyxia.

Keith Norman, acting general secretary of the train driver's union Aslef, said the findings confirmed Aslef's view that additional safety measures were needed at level crossings to ensure that any obstacle on the line triggered a braking mechanism. The report confirmed the site's safety was reviewed this summer, the details of which were still to be examined by the HSE and British Transport Police.