Police surprised so many survive British rail crash

British police voiced astonishment yesterday that so many people survived a high-speed crash of a 300-passenger train that rammed into a car at a rail crossing, killing six people.

"It is quite remarkable... if you look at the scene... which is a scene of some great devastation, that so many people managed to escape from such an awful event," deputy chief constable Andy Trotter of British Transport Police said.

The train ploughed into the car and flew off the rails in southern England on Saturday. Police said one of the six killed was in the car but declined comment on speculation the motorist may have been trying to commit suicide.

"An off-duty Thames Valley police officer saw the car go onto the level crossing and saw the barriers fall. The car remained on the crossing and he saw the train hit the car," Mr Trotter said.

Train operator First Great Western, a subsidiary of rail and bus operator FirstGroup Plc, said the train driver was another of the dead. Among the scores injured, 11 were seriously hurt.

Rail analysts said the train from London's Paddington station to Plymouth in western England would have been travelling at 160 kph as it approached the crossing and passengers said it braked hard just before the crash.

There was no indication that infrastructure failure or railway staff were responsible for the crash, in a country where rail safety has been a political issue since a series of deadly crashes followed the industry's privatisation in the 1990s.

Britain's biggest rail union RMT called for the elimination of level crossings on high-speed rail lines.

Anthony Smith, director of the Rail Passengers Council, said it was crucial a thorough investigation was carried out.

"There are two big questions which need answering quickly - what was the car doing on the railway line and why did the train derail in such a catastrophic fashion?" he said.

Rail crashes blamed on shoddy maintenance and poor driver training over the past five years have killed 42 people.