involved in the crash shortly after 5pm on Friday<\/a>, when one smashed into the back of the other on the same line.<\/p>\nA train driver died in the collision and 100 people were injured, according to updated figures from the East of England Ambulance Service on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In a press conference on Saturday morning, Lucy D’Orsi, Chief Constable of British Transport Police, said “Tragically the driver of one of the trains died in the collision. His family has been informed and our deepest condolences are with them, his friends and his colleagues at East Midlands Railway.”<\/p>\n
She added: “Over 80 people were treated at hospital last night. As of this morning 28 remain in hospital and nine are in a critical condition.” <\/p>\n
In their latest statement on Saturday, Inspectors from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said they “continue to gather evidence at the site of yesterday’s collision between two trains near Elstow”. <\/p>\n
It added: “RAIB will conduct a full, independent safety investigation into this tragic accident. We will provide a further update in the coming days once we know more.”<\/p>\n
EMR trains between Bedford and London St Pancras have been suspended until at least Monday.<\/p>\n
Lucy D’Orsi, Chief Constable of British Transport Police, leads a press conference on Saturday<\/p>\n
The East of England Ambulance Service updated their casualty figures on Saturday, saying the number of people injured in the crash has reached 100.<\/p>\n
They described the injuries of 11 people as “very serious”, 32 were classed as “serious” and 57 people had “minor injuries”. <\/p>\n
On Saturday the King also said that he is “greatly saddened” by the train crash.<\/p>\n
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: \u201cHis Majesty is greatly saddened by the rail crash in Bedford yesterday evening and is being kept regularly updated on developments.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis thoughts and sympathies are with the family of the deceased and with all those injured or affected by such a tragic incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two trains involved were operating the 4.40pm departure from Corby and the 3.50pm departure from Nottingham, both to London St Pancras.<\/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
Eddie Dempsey, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), said: \u201cWe are devastated to learn that a train driver and former RMT rep has tragically died as a result of (Friday\u2019s) crash between Luton and Bedford.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thoughts of RMT are with their family, friends, colleagues and the Aslef trade union at this awful time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emergency services at the scene of a train crash near Bedford. Credit: ITV News Anglia<\/p>\n
There was a huge emergency response to the crash, which happened just south of the Elstow interchange between the A421 and the A6.<\/p>\n
Bedford Hospital and Luton and Dunstable University Hospital both asked people not to attend their emergency departments \u201cunless they have a genuine medical emergency\u201d.<\/p>\n
Passenger Pete Knapp described people \u201ccrying, screaming\u201d and said some seemed to have major injuries.<\/p>\n
Dr Knapp, 40, told the Press Association: \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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got up and I saw a lot of people who were unable to speak, had broken legs, and then I managed to get out of the train and because I\u2019m quite thin I was able to squeeze out through the gap in the doors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Knapp 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
He said: \u201cI\u2019ve got blood all over my trousers and my back hurts like hell but I\u2019m all right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma Volney reports on the Bedford train crash for ITV News<\/p>\n
Brett Byatt, another passenger on board, 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
Mr Byatt, a teacher, 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\u2026 why wasn\u2019t that signalled to my train and why did that train driver lose his life over this?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know\u2026<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play Brightcove video Rail crash investigators are at the scene in Bedford following a fatal collision, as Matthew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-650078","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\/650078","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=650078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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