Five workers killed as vans collide Five killed in Fife van crash

road in Fife.

As two survivors were being treated in hospital, the chief constable

of Fife, Mr William Moodie, described the accident as an absolute

tragedy for the families of the victims.

The accident, on the Torryburn bypass, happened on a straight stretch

of road in bright, clear conditions shortly before 8am during an

overtaking manoeuvre by one of the vans as the men were on their way to

work.

It later emerged that three of the men involved in the accident lived

in the same street in Bonnybridge, near Falkirk.

Last night, the dead were named as Mr David Thomson and Mr Alan

Johnston, both of Woodburn Crescent, Bonnybridge; Mr Thomas Donn, of

Gillieshill, Cambusbarron, near Stirling; Mr David Russell, of Paxton

Crescent, Lochgelly, and Mr Graham Spence, of Inchgall Avenue,

Crosshill, both Fife.

The two seriously injured men have been identified as Mr John Wells,

whose address is the same as Mr Johnston's, and Mr James Gall, of

Antonine Gardens, Camelon, near Falkirk. They have been detained in

hospital in Dunfermline.

Rescue service personnel called to the scene found conditions which

they said were similar to that of an aircraft crash.

Fire and ambulance crews later had to be given counselling by a

consultant at Dunfermline and West Fife Hospital after cutting free the

dead and injured.

''It is a tragedy for the families and I am afraid that you only have

to be a police officer or a member of the support services to realise

the trauma of an accident like this,'' said Mr Moodie.

At the scene, traffic department police inspector John Stewart

described it as the worst accident he had dealt with in 30 years.

It was exacerbated because equipment in the vans acted like

projectiles on impact, he said.

A generator in one of the vehicles was propelled through the

windscreen, while an engine was hurled 40 yards.

Mr Stewart said police were anxious to trace the driver of a car

transporter on the road at the time, who may be able to help provide

important details for their inquiries.

The ambulance operations manager for Fife, Mr Bill Mason, said that

the injuries to those involved were compatible with an aircraft crash.

The Scottish Ambulance Service praised the actions of a passing

motorist who alerted it immediately, enabling a fast call-out to the

incident.

''This was the worst accident I have ever dealt with, and the worst in

Fife for many years,'' said Mr Mason.

Fife Fire and Rescue Service assistant divisional officer John Miller

said that when his crews attended they found three men already dead and

had to deal with a leaking gas cylinder thrown from one of the vans and

fuel spilling on to the roadway.

It was closed for two hours as police diverted traffic by an

alternative route.

The accident was the most serious on the road -- recently upgraded and

widened -- since three people died only a mile away 24 years ago.

Mr Moodie said that the accident record on the A895 route, and in Fife

generally, had improved since 1987 as the result of an intensive road

safety campaign.

A report on the crash is to be submitted to the procurator-fiscal at

Dunfermline.

The two Fife victims had been travelling in a van on hire to Dewsbury

Civil Engineering, of Marion Street, Bellshill, Lanarkshire. The other

van was carrying employees of C.B. Demolition, of Bonnybridge.

Mr Russell, 22, was father of a two-year-old girl and his wife Debbie

is pregnant with their second child.

She was treated by her doctor when news of her husband's death was

broken to her. Relatives said: ''We are too devastated to talk about the

crash.''

0 Mr Spence, 39, had a 12-year-old daughter, Julie, by his first

marriage. His second wife, Ruth, was not at home last night.