{"id":649934,"date":"2026-06-21T03:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/649934\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T03:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:15:15","slug":"uk-trains-collision-28-in-hospital-nine-in-critical-condition-after-friday-incident-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/649934\/","title":{"rendered":"UK trains collision: 28 in hospital, nine in critical condition, after Friday incident \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-eight people remain in hospital, nine of them in a critical condition, after two trains collided near Bedford, England<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The crash, which killed a train driver, involved two East Midlands Railway services, one smashing into the back of the other on the same line shortly after 5pm on Friday.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a press conference near the scene on Saturday, British Transport Police chief constable Lucy D\u2019Orsi said: \u201cTragically, the driver of one of the trains died in the collision.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis family have been informed and our deepest condolences are with them, his friends, and his colleagues at East Midlands Railway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe driver\u2019s family, as you would expect, are being supported by specially trained officers at this difficult time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 80 people were treated at hospital last night. As of this morning, 28 remain in hospital, and nine are in a critical condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Orsi thanked emergency service teams and railway staff for their response to the incident, adding: \u201cI also want to thank local people who showed immense kindness to those stranded on trains and to the casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Hopkinson, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue chief fire officer, said more than 70 fire officers had been involved in the response, adding there had been no fire during the incident.<\/p>\n

The two trains involved were the 4.40pm departure from Corby and the 3.50pm departure from Nottingham, both to London St Pancras.<\/p>\n

East Midlands Railway\u2019s managing director Will Rogers said it was a \u201cprofoundly sad day for the railway community\u201d and that the company was supporting the investigation.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cOur thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with family, friends, and colleagues of our driver and everybody else who has been injured or affected by this tragic incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said king Charles was \u201cgreatly saddened\u201d by the crash and that his \u201cthoughts and sympathies are with the family of the deceased and with all those injured of affected by such a tragic incident\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prime minister Keir Starmer described the crash as \u201chugely concerning\u201d and said he was \u201cgrateful to the emergency services for their swift response to this tragic incident\u201d.<\/p>\n

Passenger Pete Knapp described people \u201ccrying, screaming\u201d and said some seemed to have major injuries.<\/p>\n

Knapp said: \u201cThere 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he saw people with \u201clife-threatening, major injuries, minor injuries\u201d as well as \u201cpeople with bandages, people who couldn\u2019t see straight\u201d, while others like him were still able to walk.<\/p>\n

Brett Byatt, another passenger on board, told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme he was among three or four people in his carriage who were not injured, adding: \u201cEveryone else had either a serious wound that was bleeding profusely, or a situation where they couldn\u2019t stand, or couldn\u2019t move their neck, or I saw a woman\u2019s snapped leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Byatt, who lives in Bedford, said he was now feeling \u201cangry\u201d the morning after the collision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know at whom, who specifically, but it\u2019s more about we\u2019ve got one of the oldest railway networks and signal failures happen a lot, and now I\u2019m just wondering … why wasn\u2019t that signalled to my train and why did that train driver lose his life over this?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Police and network rail crews remained at the scene on Saturday as reporters were allowed on to a field next to the railway line to get a closer view of the site.<\/p>\n

The front of the train from Corby has been crushed where it collided with the rear of the train from Nottingham.<\/p>\n

On the rear train, which has Luton Airport Express livery, there is visible damage to the rear of the carriages which have been shunted into ones in front.<\/p>\n

Network Rail said on Saturday that part of the East Midlands route remained closed as the emergency response continued and teams assessed damage to the trains and infrastructure. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-eight people remain in hospital, nine of them in a critical condition, after two trains collided near Bedford,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-649934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}