Suicide train crash prompts safety review

Times Online - Britain: "RAIL experts and passenger groups are demanding urgent new safeguards after a suicidal motorist derailed all eight carriages of an inter-city high-speed train, killing seven people. An eight-year-old girl and the train driver were among those who died along with the motorist, who was seen to stop his car in the middle of the tracks at a level crossing near the Berkshire village of Ufton Nervet. Seventeen passengers are still in hospital.

Rail safety engineers called for closed-circuit television and full-length barriers to be installed at all level crossings over high-speed lines. As the crossing barriers began to close, the officer ran to an emergency telephone at the side of the track to alert the oncoming train but he has told police that nobody answered his call. The motorist was seen sitting impassively at the wheel as the locomotive, travelling at about 100mph, crashed into the silver-grey Mazda saloon.

More than 300 passengers were travelling on the First Great Western 5.35pm Paddington to Plymouth service, and police say that half of them suffered injuries. "