A woman driver was killed yesterday after desperately trying to reverse her car out of the path of an oncoming train.
A WOMAN driver was killed yesterday after desperately trying to reverse her car out of the path of an oncoming train.
The 30-year-old was driving across an icy level crossing when her car clipped a Ford Transit van heading in the opposite direction.
Police said the crash left the woman stranded on the level crossing as the barriers came down.
Moments later, the 8.33am Peterborough to Lincoln service struck the grey Rover 216, with the woman still at the wheel desperately trying to drive her car to safety.
Speaking from the scene, in South Drove, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, Sergeant Dave Kay said: "She was making frantic attempts to get off the level crossing but witnesses said it was very, very quick from when the barriers came down to the collision.
"She was trying to get her car off the level crossing but because of the Arctic conditions it was like a skating rink and she couldn't get very far."
Police said the accident happened shortly before 9am yesterday and involved a service operated by East Midlands Trains.
The van's driver managed to steer it off the crossing at West Road following the initial accident.
He, along with one of his passengers, then tried to reach the woman, from Spalding, before she was killed.
A spokeswoman for East Midlands Trains said none of the 18 passengers on the train was hurt.
It was 11am, however, before an engineer allowed the train to make the short journey to Spalding station.From there, passengers were taken to Lincoln by bus.
Network Rail said the train was not derailed and was only slightly damaged.
It added that trains were terminating at Sleaford in Lincolnshire while the incident was being investigated.
The road was closed last night, police said. Officers added that the train's driver was badly shaken.
Network Rail, which is responsible for rail infrastructure, recently launched a television and radio advertising campaign warning of the dangers of level crossings, particularly regarding misuse.
With at least 13 collisions between road vehicles and trains in 2008, Britain is on course for a four-year high of level crossing incidents.
In November last year, a motorist died when his car was hit by a train on a level crossing near Flookburgh in Cumbria. The car was struck by the 9.37am Carlisle to Lancaster service travelling at about 50mph.
During an earlier incident at the same crossing last February, two men were injured after a Land Rover was struck by a train.
There were at least five incidents in Scotland last year, including one in May when a train struck a vehicle at Bunchrew level crossing - which has lights but no barriers - between Inverness and Beauly. The driver of the vehicle was seriously injured and required hospital treatment and was subsequently charged.
A heavier price was paid in February 2007, when a car carrying three 17-year-old passengers collided with a train at the unmanned crossing at Delny, near Invergordon.
Two of the teenagers died as a result and the car driver was jailed for five years.
According to Network Rail, 95% of accidents at level crossings are caused by misuse or error such as drivers ignoring red signals, barriers and klaxons.
