A passenger has described a "scene of utter chaos" after witnessing what he believes was 90% of his carriage suffering injuries in a devastating train collision near Bedford on Friday evening. Brett Byatt, a teacher from the town, spoke to the BBC's Today programme about his harrowing experience on an East Midlands Railway (EMR) service that collided with another train.
The crash resulted in the death of a driver and 89 injuries, with 33 people requiring urgent hospital treatment. Byatt was only five minutes into his journey when the collision occurred and noted that the EMR train was not travelling at full speed at the time. He highlighted the internal structure of EMR trains, which he believes may have exacerbated injuries as passengers were propelled into each other and seats broke backwards.
Byatt described witnessing "bodies flung across the carriages" and saw several people sustaining serious wounds and broken bones. He managed to avoid severe injury himself by standing near the doors and holding onto a stanchion, but was left shaken by what he witnessed. Passengers immediately began administering first aid until emergency services arrived around ten minutes later.
Following the incident, Byatt expressed frustration and anger at the circumstances that led to the driver's death on one of the UK's oldest railway networks, where signal failures are a recurring concern. The trains involved will be equipped with 'black box' data recorders, which will provide investigators with second-by-second information on every control activated.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and the train drivers' union Aslef have extended their condolences to the driver's family and colleagues. A team from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch is currently gathering evidence at the scene to determine the cause of the crash.