Ufton Nervet crash victim recalls horror - ten years on

Jane Hawker was in Coach D of the 17.35 high-speed First Great Western Service from Paddington to Plymouth when it hit a car that had been deliberately parked on the level crossing and derailed. She and a friend had been visiting an art exhibition that day at the Tate Gallery in London.
Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News just a fortnight before the 10th anniversary, she said: “I remember when we got on the train it was quite crowded and we were debating where to sit.
“We settled for coach D, which was the coach behind one of the ones which overturned. We couldn’t have known it at the time, but that turned out to be a very momentous decision.
“We had not long come out of Reading when I felt this massive jolt coming up through the floor.
“The next thing I knew I was being thrown up into the air. It was like being in a tumble dryer, that is the only way I can describe it.
“It was then I started thinking about my four children and whether I’d see them again. I really thought ‘this is it’, and then it stopped and I realised I was still alive.”
Mrs Hawker managed to escape with a broken finger and bruising and tissue damage, but her friend was more seriously injured. “It was obvious we needed to get her to hospital and my main concern was with her. I remember we were quite rationally talking about what to do,”she added.
“It was pitch black and we had no mobile signal so I was unable to let my husband or relatives know I was ok. It was a horrible few hours for them.
“We were also terrified of moving in case the carriage collapsed. Then a man put his head and shoulders through a smashed window and said that there was diesel spilling out onto the track and we needed to try and get out.
“It was then I thought ‘I’ve survived this crash I’m not going to give up now’.
“I got lucky but others didn’t. It has certainly changed my life and the way I view things. I don’t ever skip a light to get somewhere one second quicker, and I don’t tend to rush to get anywhere.
"Life is so important.”