Train driver critically injured

[GWR9600]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/h...cs/6194277.stm

A train driver is in a critical condition after he was struck by a large piece of masonry which smashed through his cab window.

The driver, 56, suffered serious head and face injuries after being struck as he drove a freight train through Worcestershire on Sunday morning.

He was taken to the Royal Worcester Hospital where he remains.

Transport police said they are treating the incident as suspicious although they are not ruling anything out.

The train was travelling between Llanwern and Brierley Hill when the masonry crashed through the windscreen in Kidderminster. Where is this

Chf Insp Allan Gregory of British Transport Police said: "The train travelled underneath three bridges - Chester Road North, Offmore Lane and Comberton Hill (A448), before it came to a standstill.

"We are appealing to the public to come forward if they saw anyone acting suspiciously in the area.

"This is a serious incident that has left a train driver badly injured. At this stage we are not ruling out anything."

I hope he gets better. A family friend was once driving an EMU and had a brick thrown through the window, he was un hurt but the physiological impact meant he never got into a train's cab again.

[frodofro]

Since 1985 when I started on the railway I have had all manner of things thrown at the cab window and even driven into a brick that was attatched to a wire that was stretched across the track between the supports of a footbridge (luckily it struck just below the window level). My thoughts are with this fellow driver (who was just doing his job) and also with his family.