Rail crash: Death toll rises as hunt continues

The official death toll - updated this morning to 27 - could more than double, police have warned.

Experienced counsellors have been called in to help the Paddington crash victims, their relatives and train company staff at centres in Cheltenham, Reading, Swindon and London.

As accident investigators rushed to produce a rapid report on the crash, both of the train drivers, who could have provided vital information, remained unaccounted for.

The accident saw a high-speed First Great Western train crash into a Thames Trains' local service and burst into flames at Ladbroke Grove in west London at the height of yesterday's morning rush-hour.

The accident is likely to be the worst in terms of deaths since a crash at Harrow and Wealdstone in west London in October 1952 when 112 were killed and 340 injured after two express trains collided and a third ran into the wreckage.

More recently, 35 people died in the Clapham rail crash in December 1988, while seven were killed at Southall in September 1997 - on the same stretch of line as yesterday's tragedy.

Transport Minister Lord Macdonald today said the on-going inquiry into the Southall rail crash would be asked to consider safety questions arising from yesterday's crash.

But Maureen Kavanagh, from Laindon, who lost her 29-year-old son Peter at Southall, said the Government must act urgently to tighten up safety on Britain's railways.

Forty seven survivors - some still in serious conditions - were being treated at six different London hospitals.

At Reading station in Berkshire, where many of the First Great Western passengers would have boarded yesterday morning, more than 150 cars remained in the car park when, normally, only about 50 vehicles would have been there overnight.

Confirming that his driver was still unaccounted for today, Thames Trains' managing director Terry Worrall refused to comment this morning on speculation about who was to blame for the crash.

The accident happened at 8.11am yesterday. The Great Western train had left Cheltenham at 6.03am and probably had around 500 passengers on board as it neared Paddington.

The three-carriage Thames Trains service had just left Paddington bound for Bedwyn in Wiltshire.

Today's search was centred on the badly-burned first class carriage at the front of the Great Western train.

"It is a grim task we face and it is going to be a long, painstaking and difficult job," said Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Trotter.

He went on: "It could well be that we will not be finished by the end of the day. We are still looking at the whole of the train but work will be concentrated on one particular carriage which was very badly damaged by fire."

Alan Wheeler, spokesman for LTS Rail which operates trains along the Fenchurch Street line, said the crash had sent shockwaves throughout the industry.

He said: "It is the scale of the tragedy that has left everybody devastated, and if there are lessons to be learned they will be.

"The big debate is on a government level, about whether Automatic Train Protection will be installed nationwide."

Mr Wheeler added LTS trains were already fitted with AWS (Automatic Warning System) and a new device known as TPWS (Train Protection Warning System) was being phased in under government legislation by 2004.

He continued: "Safety is always under review, it is a constant priority. This tragedy involved trains travelling from one track to another under different operator's.

"We are primarily one operator on a fairly compact route, and while freight trains do use the lines, it would be unlikely to happen."

Hunt for bodies - emergency services search the wreckage for crash victims this morning

Horrific - the scene of the accident as emergency crews struggled to free the trapped victims

Prescott demands statement

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has ordered crash investigators to issue a statement on the Paddington rail disaster within days to avoid a Southall-style delay on safety lessons.

Amid mounting anger that another west London fatal crash had occurred just two years after the Southall accident, the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott took steps to ensure that the inquiry began promptly.

Mr Prescott said last night that the public inquiry should focus on what went wrong yesterday morning and how it could be prevented from happening again.

"I want an inquiry to be able to produce its recommendations as quickly as possible,'' he told BBC's Newsnight.

Relatives set to identify bodies

Partners and relatives of victims of the Paddington rail disaster were today beginning the grim task of identifying their loved ones.

As the final death toll remained uncertain this morning, police organised briefings for anyone who feared that a family member had died in the crash.

The meetings were being held at 10am in London, Reading, Swindon and Cheltenham to assist the families of victims.

Scotland Yard said the latest information will be given and identification procedures explained. Counsellors will also be available.

"The Coroner, police and rescue agencies are endeavouring to ensure that the earliest possible contact is made with relatives and partners, and identification of the deceased takes place,'' said a Yard spokesman.

"It is most likely that this process will take many days and probably longer because of the scale.''

Scotland Yard also appealed to the media not to cover the briefings.

Grim - emergency services hoped they would never have to put their disaster plan into operation

Mother calls for safety crackdown Action desperately needs to be taken to prevent a third fatal rail smash, according to the bereaved mother of Southall victim Peter Kavanagh.

Maureen Kavanagh, of Somerset Road, Laindon, heard recently at the Southall inquiry how rail company Great Western made changes to avoid a repeat of the September 1997 incident.

Peter Kavanagh was one of the seven killed in the lunchtime tragedy, which also left 170 injured.

Now the same company has been involved in a second tragedy, leaving yet more rail passengers dead and injured in the incident near Paddington station.

Mrs Kavanagh now believes the Government should take over the situation to ensure there are no more disasters.

She said: "I have heard at the inquiry - which finishes in six weeks - how Great Western has taken action to make its trains safer since the Southall crash.

They told us so many procedures had been put in place. We have been told trains will no longer be allowed out if their warning system is not working - providing there are enough trains to cover the demand.

"We do not know exactly what has happened this time. This is exactly what I said would happen."

The bereaved mother told This Is Essex as the news of the second rail disaster broke how she felt she had been "punched in the stomach".

Thoughts of the moment she correctly feared her son was dead were brought back to the front of her mind.

Just last week she had vowed to move forward with her life after marking the second anniversary of Peter's death.

Mrs Kavanagh said: "This crash has happened right in the middle of the rush hour with commuters trying to get to work.

"It is time for the Government to tighten regulations to make sure there cannot possibly be another repeat."

Southall victim - Peter Kavanagh

Hospital ready for action

The St Andrew's Centre at Broomfield Hospital swung into its full major incident procedure when news of yesterday's death crash outside Paddington station filtered through.

Doctors, anaesthetists and nurses gave up their days off and reported for duty without even waiting to be called. Consultant surgeon, Jim Frame, was contacted on the golf course and arrived with an American burns specialist colleague.

In the end no casualties were taken to the hospital, but a Broomfield spokesman said it was ready to receive patients.

"Because we are quite near to London and have one of the best burns units it was understandable we were put on alert.

"But because the London hospital's have coped so well at this time it was not necessary for us to get involved," she added.

John Davies, general manager of the burns and plastic surgery centre in Chelmsford, said the unit had been cleared of all patients who could be moved and all routine surgery cancelled.

He said: "We had four intensive care beds for ventilated patients, four high-dependency beds and four high dependency beds for kiddies."

The centre also extended its creche facilities until well into yesterday evening so that staff and relatives could leave their children in safe hands.

Mr Davies said: "We had cleared all the decks. This was a full major incident - more than a red alert. This was absolutely top readiness we could possibly be in."

He was first alerted by his assistant general manager who heard first news of the crash on the radio. He then got a call from the ambulance control centre in London.

Mr Davies said he was proud of the way staff had responded to the emergency.

"I didn't have to ask them."

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