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Morning News

Thirteen Dead in UK Rail Crash

Aired February 28, 2001 - 11:22 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Rescue crews believe they have pulled all the survivors from the wreckage of a deadly train collision about 160 miles north of London. It happened less than 10 hours ago. At least 13 people are now dead. Dozens more are injured.

CNN London bureau chief Tom Mintier joins us live from Selby, England near the crash site.

However, Tom, I understand somebody was pulled from the rubble alive. Is that true?

TOM MINTIER, CNN LONDON BUREAU CHIEF: That's correct, Kyra. About three hours and 20 minutes ago, a victim was cut from the wreckage, the last person to be brought out alive. Shortly after that, police, fire and rescue made the determination that there will be no more rescues. It is now a recovery and investigative operation.

They will now start to slowly remove the at least 13 deaths, fatalities from this train crash one by one, saying it will be a very slow process to afford the dignity to the deceased, and also to allow police investigators to carefully document the location where the fatalities occurred. They say this is going to be a very, very slow process, and it could be several hours before cranes are moved in to lift those passenger cars.

Now, they say when they lift the passenger cars, it's quite possible that they might raise the death toll from 13, they might find additional victims underneath the cars.

Now, the way that this accident occurred was quite strange. There was a Land Rover pulling a trailer with another vehicle that police still cannot identify what type of vehicle it was on the bank of it. It went over and over on an overpass down onto the tracks, was hit by the passenger train, which was trailing at about 125 miles an hour.

The passenger train, according to rail track officials, remained upright but derailed, but it pushed it into the path of an oncoming freight train loaded with coal.

Now, this train was traveling at about 40 miles an hour. They say there were 80 to 100 people and eight crewmembers on the passenger train, and two crewmembers on the freight train. They have interviewed the driver of the truck that started all this off. The driver of the Land Rover has been interviewed by police, but they're not releasing any details of what he has provided them so far.

There have been reports circulating here at the scene that the driver of the Land Rover pulled out his mobile home after he went down into the ravine and made a 999 emergency call, what they call a 911 call in America. They're also not releasing any details or even refusing to confirm that that call took place. But it might shed some indication of what happened in the seconds before the passenger train slammed into the Land Rover that was on the tracks.

But as it stands right now, more than 70 people are hurt, 30 of them pretty serious in the hospital, and at least 13 are dead. That death toll may increase through the evening hours.

Now, the British secretary -- minister of transport, John Prescott, was at the scene here in the last few hours and saw firsthand the devastation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PRESCOTT, BRITISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Clearly a terrible tragedy. And my thoughts at the moment must be with those that have been wounded and injured in this situation, and also those -- to the relatives of those that have died. A full assessment of that is being made and a statement will be made later. We obviously admire the great professionalism of our rescue services and emergency services.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: It could take at least another day or even two days before they're able to clear the track of the wreckage. The investigation is going to be a very slow and tedious process.

I'm Tom Mintier, CNN, reporting live from Great Heck, England.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks, Tom.

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