Shaun Burton Killed After East Midlands Railway Train Crashes Near Bedford

A train crash near Bedford killed Shaun Burton, 60, after the East Midlands Railway (EMR) train he was driving crashed into the back of another on the same line shortly after 5pm on Friday.

“- Published The family of the driver killed in the Bedford train crash have said they are devastated by his death, while a union leader has called it heartbreaking”

BBC

British Transport Police said in a tribute that his family was "devastated by his loss" and asked that their privacy be respected as they begin to come to terms with the death.

BBC

The BBC reported that the collision left 100 people injured, with 28 people remaining in hospital including nine in a critical condition as of Saturday.

The BBC said the major incident involved two London-bound services, with EMR suspending services to and from London St Pancras over the weekend and Network Rail expecting the line between Bedford and Luton to remain closed until 28 June.

Network Rail’s Ellie Burrows said on Sunday that "this was a tragic, isolated incident" while the Rail Accident Investigation Branch investigated the crash and planned further updates in the coming days.

As the investigation continued, Aslef general secretary Dave Calfe said he was "heartbroken" by the death of Shaun Burton and described him as having joined the railway "relatively late in life" after working on buses and coaches.

The BBC also quoted Calfe saying the railway family grieves his passing and that "no-one should go off to work in the morning and not come home."

GB News

In a separate account, the BBC reported that Brett Byatt, travelling to St Pancras from Bedford when the crash occurred, said other passengers "went flying into one another" after the collision.

Byatt told BBC Breakfast he heard a "boom" followed by "shrieks and groans of pain" after the collision, as Network Rail said a "complex recovery operation" had begun to remove the damaged trains from the railway.

The BBC said police declared a major incident when two EMR services to London St Pancras collided at 17:15 BST just south of Elstow, near the road interchange of the A421 and A6.

Network Rail said rail disruption was set to continue until 28 June, describing the work as a "complex recovery operation" to remove the damaged trains and carriages from the railway.

“The driver killed in the train crash near Bedford has been named as Shaun Burton”

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The Independent reported that nine people remained in a critical condition as of Saturday afternoon, while another 32 were seriously injured and 57 suffered minor injuries, as the Rail Accident Investigation Branch led the probe.

The Independent said investigators were expected to look at black box data from both trains, along with CCTV and available signalling information, and that the probe was expected to consider signal failures and the possibility of human error.

The BBC reported that engineers started to build a temporary access road for two 110-tonne rail-mounted cranes to lift the vehicles from the site, after dismantling overhead power lines.

The BBC said trains have been disrupted since the incident, with EMR suspending services to and from London St Pancras over the weekend and Thameslink urging passengers to travel only if necessary while repair work and investigations continued.