SURVIVORS of the Selby railcrash and relatives of victims have welcomed the decision by top judges to refuse a bid by driver Gary Hart to get his conviction overturned.

Hart, jailed for five years for causing the deaths of ten people at Great Heck, lost his Court of Appeal challenge against a verdict of causing death by dangerous driving.

Three judges in London yesterday refused permission to appeal to Hart, 37, of Strubby, in Lincolnshire.

Lord Justice Rose said: "There is, as it seems to us, no reason whatever to regard these verdicts as unsafe."

The decision delighted those affected by the crash, which took place when Hart's Land Rover was struck by a GNER train on the East Coast Main Line after the vehicle had veered off an embankment on the M62.

Ten men died when the express train derailed and then collided with a freight train at Great Heck on February 28, 2001.

Janine Edwards, who was badly injured, said the judges' decision would help her to further erase the memories of that day.

"I still think about the crash. It does get to me in a way," she said. "It would have been a travesty if he had been allowed to appeal.

"I am very pleased. It was something that was avoidable and he killed ten people. He deserves to face some kind of punishment."

Margitta Needham, of Pocklington, whose husband Barry died in the disaster, said: "He has not acknowledged his responsibility and the fact that he caused the crash. I see it as very cowardly behaviour."

A single judge at the Court of Appeal had already refused to give Hart leave to challenge his conviction, but he renewed his bid before the three-judge court.

The result means that the inquests into the deaths, which had been delayed because of the legal challenges, should now be able to go ahead.

Updated: 11:10 Tuesday, April 15, 2003