‘Mum said dad’s been killed and we’re not going to see him again’
Two trains crashed at Great Heck, near Selby, on 28 February 2001 [Phil Noble/PA Media]
The eldest son of a freight train driver killed in the worst UK rail disaster of the 21st Century says he felt he had to "keep strong" for the sake of his family following his father's death in the tragedy.
Andrew Dunn was just 13 when he was told by his mum that his dad, Steve, had been killed in the crash at Great Heck in North Yorkshire on 28 February 2001.
"Mum took us upstairs into one of the bedrooms and said dad's been killed and we weren't going to see him again," he recalls. Advertisement Advertisement
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A total of 10 men died and more than 80 people were seriously injured when an express passenger train collided with a fully laden goods train at a combined speed of 142 mph (228 km/h).
The passenger train had been thrown into the path of the freight train by a Land Rover which had plummeted on to the East Coast Main Line after its driver had fallen asleep at the wheel.
Steve Dunn was on the footplate of the freight train, which was carrying 1,000 tonnes of coal.
Speaking publically for the first time a quarter of a century after the tragedy, Andrew, now 38, says that for months and even years after his father's death, his brother thought he "didn't care because I never showed any emotion". Advertisement
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"I think it was to do with the fact that I was trying to keep strong for everyone," he says.
Andrew Dunn was 13 when his father was killed in the crash at Great Heck [Phil Bodmer/BBC]
Andrew says that after his mum broke the news to him and his 10-year-old brother James, "we all just broke down and cuddled up".
He remembers that after his dad's death, he wrote a note on some flowers and took it to the crash site.
"I wrote on there something along the lines of, look after them and look after my mum and brother - something like that," he says.
"I think from that day onwards, I don't know, I guess I tried - whether I succeeded, I don't know, I haven't got a clue - I tried being something else, I guess, while I was growing up.
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"It always stuck with me. I've seen my friends growing up, I've seen what they have and what I haven't got - even going for your first drink when you're 18 - I never had that," he adds.
"I just look at them and think, you don't realise what you've got."
On 28 February 2001, a series of unfortunate circumstances had conspired to create the disaster which unfolded at Great Heck.
It was sleeting when Gary Hart, from Strubby in Lincolnshire, fell asleep at the wheel as he was driving a Land Rover Defender and trailer.
At about 06:10 GMT, Hart's vehicle veered off the westbound carriage of the M62 down an embankment and onto the East Coast Main Line. Advertisement
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Moments later, a southbound GNER train from York struck the Land Rover and was derailed.
The train remained upright, but further down the track a set of points deflected it into the path of the freight train which was running 20 minutes early.
Shaken by the crash off the motorway, Hart had climbed out of the Land Rover and called the emergency services.
During that call to police, the passenger train's horn can be heard before the moment of impact.
In a recording of the 999 call, the squealing of brakes can be heard as Hart tells the operator the train had "gone straight through my Land Rover".
Sue Nelson worked for Railtrack at the time of the crash [Phil Bodmer/BBC]
Sue Nelson, who at the time worked for Railtrack, which then ran Britain's railway infrastructure, arrived at the crash site about 40 minutes after it had happened.
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Also speaking about the events of that day for the first time, she says her boss had been in London and was making arrangements to come north following the disaster.
"He asked me to describe what I could see from the bridge and I can remember saying, there' s one coach off, there's another off, and I said, oh my God, they're all off," she recalls.
"At that time, we couldn't see sight of what was happening with the freight train, because that was further north.
"It was beyond the bridge and it had ended up in some poor soul's garden. It was horrific to see." Advertisement
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Her team contacted Northern Straw, which had a business adjacent to the crash site, and was to be from where all the emergency services worked.
It was also where passengers were taken to after the crash - both those who survived and those who died.
Sue said the crash clearly had an impact on the village of Great Heck.
"Obviously, there was damage to houses north of the bridge, particularly where the freight train came to rest," she said
"It was just very traumatising.
I remember it was very busy. It was chaotic."
Police inspect the damaged Land Rover and trailer at Great Heck [PA Media]
While Gary Hart suffered only whiplash, 10 men died as a result of the crash: Steve Dunn, 39, the freight train driver; Raymond Robson, 43, a GNER senior conductor; Paul Taylor, 42, a GNER buffet chef; John Weddle, 47, the GNER train driver; and passengers Steve Baldwin, 39, Chris Terry, 30, Alan Ensor, 44, Barry Needham, 40, Clive Vigden, 39, and Robert Shakespeare, 43. Meanwhile, 82 people were injured.
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Three helicopters and a fleet of ambulances carried the injured to seven different hospitals across Yorkshire, with snow, sleet and freezing weather creating difficult conditions for the rescue efforts.
One of the emergency crew members at the crash scene was paramedic Ray Chapman.
"I remember seeing both the trains, the Land Rover and its trailer, all the fire engines and ambulances," he says
"Because of the major incident you had to go in a certain way and then come out a certain way. That's why we got a glimpse of it.
"It made me take a gulp of what we were going into."
Ray Chapman was one of the paramedics who attended the crash scene [BBC]
Phil Graham was Railtrack's incident commander for the crash, coordinating efforts from a signalling centre in York. Advertisement
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He was alerted to the unfolding disaster by pager on his way to work.
He says he initially misread the message, thinking it said "no casualties" rather than casualties.
The loss of life could have been even greater if it had not been for the design of the carriages, he believes.
"The rolling stock, the coaches, stood up really well when you think that collision happened at a closing speed of a 142 mph," he explains.
"The fact that they retained as much structural integrity as they did - one coach had rolled right over during the course of the accident.
"It's miraculous no more people were killed."
Wreckage of the Freightliner locomotive at Great Heck following the crash [PA Media/NorthYorkshire Police handout]
Gary Hart would later be convicted of 10 counts of causing death by dangerous driving and served 30 months of a five-year jail term.
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A quarter of a century on, Andrew Dunn says he would like to ask Hart if he regrets what he did.
"Part of me doesn't want to ever see him, but then there is that part that does want to sit down and have a conversation," he says.
"He didn't deliberately set out that day to kill people, I get that.
"But he knew he was tired and he decided to drive - and from his actions 10 people are no longer here."
Looking back, the 38-year-old says he still does not think justice was served.
For some like Andrew, the emotional impact of what happened at Great Heck still clearly feels as raw now as it did 25 years ago.
Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.[1][2]
References
- ^ North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds (www.bbc.co.uk)
- ^ episode of Look North (www.bbc.co.uk)