A series of extraordinary circumstances brought disaster to Britain's railways yesterday when a collision at Great Heck, near Selby, north Yorkshire, left 13 people dead and 70 injured.
The tragedy occurred shortly after 6.00 a.m. when a highspeed Great North Eastern Railways Newcastle-to-London train hit a car on the track.
The car was being towed on the M62 by a Land Rover which apparently burst a tyre. Both vehicles slipped down an embankment close to a roadside bridge with crash barriers.
The passenger train continued travelling at about 125 m.p.h. and ploughed almost head-on into a north-bound freight train travelling at about 70 m.p.h.
One eyewitness described the aftermath as looking like a "bomb site".
Queen Elizabeth described the accident as a "particularly shocking tragedy" and offered her sympathy to the relatives and families of those killed and injured.
As the Health and Safety Executive launched an investigation, the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, expressed his "profound distress" at the crash and praised the "noble" response of the emergency services and local people.
The Health and Safety Executive investigation is likely to concentrate on how the LandRover and the towed car were able to leave the motorway and end up on the track even though a 30-metre crash barrier had been erected next to the road bridge.
Since April 1st, 1998, 29 vehicles have come off road bridges or driven through track-side fencing, and trains have hit two vehicles.
An interim report on the crash will be given to the government within the next few days, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Prescott, told the House of Commons last night.
In an emergency statement after visiting the crash site, Mr Prescott said that once the Health and Safety Executive had given him the report, he would make a decision on "what further steps were appropriate".
Paying tribute to the emergency services and local people who dealt with the disaster, he told MPs: "It is essential that this appalling tragedy is subject to the fullest investigation."
Many people expressed disbelief that the number of fatalities was not higher. Several carriages of the passenger train were devastated on impact with the freight train.
But unlike the Hatfield, Paddington and Southall train crashes, the Selby crash appears to have been caused by a road accident rather than poor track maintenance or driver error.
It was dark at 6.12 a.m. when the Land-Rover apparently suffered a burst tyre a few metres from a bridge crossing the East Coast mainline.
The car came to rest on the railway line. The driver got out of his car and was speaking to the emergency services on his mobile telephone when the express arrived.
The GNER train hit the vehicles at 6.15 a.m. The nine carriages remained upright, although some were derailed. The train travelled about 400 metres before it was hit a few seconds later by the freight train, which was travelling at about 70 m.p.h. It weighed about 1,500 tonnes and was carrying 1,000 tonnes of coal.
Witnesses said the wreckage of the passenger carriages was spread over several hundred yards. The driver of the train was killed.
At least one passenger carriage had its roof torn off, while other carriages lay mangled and twisted. Passengers' personal belongings were strewn beside the tracks.
The driver of the Land-Rover was a 37-year-old man from Lincolnshire who was towing the car to Manchester. He escaped serious injury and was later taken to Goole police station in east Yorkshire, where officers from North Yorkshire and Humberside Police and British Transport Police questioned him about the disaster. One of the survivors, Ms Janine Edwards (22), said she felt lucky to have escaped unhurt.
"I heard screaming and shouting and the lights went out. I held onto the table in front of me and then there was a huge impact," she said.