A victim's story

More than three years on, he is one of six survivors yet to receive a settlement. Fearing the worst from a recently-released Gary Hart in a TV documentary, he told reporter Dan Jones it was time his side of the story was heard.

AT first he thought it was heavy sleet, battering the windows of the carriage as the GNER express raced towards Great Heck early one cold February morning.

Then came a violent, shuddering brake and an "almighty bang" as loud as a volley of gun fire.

Moments before he passed out for three whole days, former soldier Stephen Lofthouse knew something was terribly wrong.

He was one of the lucky passengers on the doomed London-bound service who lived to discover the deafening noise hammering against the carriage windows was not caused by the weather, but by track ballast.

It was in a bed in the intensive care unit at Wakefield's Pinderfields hospital that he learned the stones had ripped through the air as the express, derailed by Gary Hart's crashed Land Rover and trailer, headed for a devastating collision with an oncoming freight train.

Ten men died in the carnage of the Selby rail crash - and Stephen Lofthouse today told the Evening Press how he gives thanks "every single day" that he was did not make that death toll eleven.

But the father-of-two still has painful mental and physical reminders of the crash, which he says cost him his job and his marriage.

Speaking for the first time about his ordeal, he admitted it was touch and go as to whether he was going to survive a catalogue of horrendous injuries sustained as he "pinballed" around the carriage.

"The doctors told me I was lucky to still be here," admitted Stephen, whose wife Jacky miraculously walked from the wreckage with minor injuries.

The high-speed collision left the former Royal Mail sorting officer fighting for his life with a badly-fractured skull. Doctors had to staple the top left section of his head during the first of ten vital operations over a nightmare two-year period.

The next operation saw his left little finger pinned back into place. He has painful arthritis in that hand and for the rest of his life he will only be able to move the finger half way.

Stephen's shoulder was smashed in three separate places and had to be completely reconstructed. Now he can only lift his arm to shoulder height.

Medics said there was a real danger the Acomb resident could lose his right leg, which was badly damaged. It was threatened by a dangerous blood clot and had swollen, so surgeons had cut the leg down both sides from the knee down. The leg now throbs painfully in winter.

Six weeks in hospital after the crash did not spell the end of the former Beckfield Lane school pupil's misery.

His injuries meant he was medically retired from his sorting office job, which he had happily held for 12 years.

Years of operations and physiotherapy loomed, and the psychological problems were only just beginning.

He says he will never travel on a train again and is reluctant to go by bus, walking whenever possible.

Pastimes he used to enjoy, like refereeing Sunday football matches and avidly watching York City Football Club, have fallen by the wayside due to his fear of crowds.

"I'm still in counselling now, I go every week," said Stephen, who is taking antidepressants to control panic attacks and who is now frightened by loud bangs.

"They do not think it's going to get any better until everything to do with the rail crash is finished."

He compared his life to that of a prisoner.

"It's solitary confinement in a sense," he said. "I go and see my friends in the pub but apart from that it's a non-existent life. I hope that changes when the claim is settled."

His marriage to Jacky, Stephen's second marriage, ended after she provided months of caring support. But he said the strain of his injuries proved too much and the relationship ended. The aftermath of the crash has also had a "horrendous" impact on his two children from his first marriage, Carl, 21 and Kirsty, 15.

Efforts to move on have not been helped by delays to a six-figure compensation claim against Hart's insurers Fortis. Stephen is one of six survivors still awaiting final settlement as the company's solicitors have called for a series of fresh medical reports.

Talented chef Stephen nearly completed a cookery course at college, with a view to setting up his own restaurant, but said he could not complete it as pressures surrounding the insurance claim amplified.

But that stress and frustration turned to bitter rage when Stephen saw a brief clip advertising a BBC documentary, One Life - Asleep at the Wheel, telling Hart's story.

Stephen said a clip of Hart questioning evidence used to convict him of ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving was the final straw - and sparked his decision to speak out today.

A jury ruled that sleep-starved Hart fell asleep at the wheel of his car before the crash, although he has always maintained he was not to blame. He has said it was an accident and that he either hit something on the road or his vehicle was faulty.

Now Stephen fears Hart, who was sentenced to five years' jail, will use the programme to maintain this stance, which has been viewed as arrogant by grieving relatives.

"This programme is rankling me something chronic," he said. "This is not a good move on Hart's part.

"I don't know what he's going to say, but it looks like he's going to be pleading his innocence again, and is probably getting paid to say it.

"He is really rubbing our noses in it. If he had kept stum I would have kept quiet too.

"He has shown no remorse and even when he was sentenced he kicked a court door in frustration. He could not believe he had been sent down.

"If he had held his hand up and said 'I fell asleep, I'm sorry', I would have had a bit more time for him. But he won't even say that, and that's a hard, hard thing for me to live with.

"It was his Land Rover on the railway line - it was his fault."

The crash survivor maintains money is not an issue; he just wants somebody to accept responsibility.

"Nothing will compensate for what I've gone through," he said. "£375 million would not be enough."

He says the case has gone to court twice and although Fortis have yet to make an offer a deadline of next May - nearly five years on from the crash - has been set.

Fortis said 65 claims for compensation relating to the rail crash have been settled in full, and in 25 further cases interim payments and rehabilitation costs have been met.

The six remaining cases have been delayed by medical evidence, the company said in August.

Stephen fears the claim may take many more months to settle. But he refuses to be completely disheartened and says surviving the crash - despite the many problems that have followed - has given him a fresh perspective of life.

"Every day is a great day," he said. "That's the way I look at it now.

"It can be snowing, raining, it can do what the hell it likes. I get up and it's another great day, because it's another day I'm here."

Updated: 10:42 Tuesday, October 26, 2004