Devastation

GNER's high-speed fleet continues to rattle past on the East Coast Main Line. But Great Heck is a community still struggling to come to terms with an event which hit like a bolt without warning.

Gary Hart, a self-styled ordinary man, had one extraordinary attribute. He said he didn't need sleep. "My lifestyle dictates that I can stay up for 36 hours, no problem" was how the 37-year-old put it to police.

This belief in his superhuman ability to stay awake saw Hart set off from his home in Strubby, Lincolnshire, with coffee in hand, window open and radio blaring as he headed towards the M62. He had not slept in nearly 24 hours.

For those who boarded the GNER express 4.45am at Newcastle, or the 5.59am at York, to Kings Cross, it was like any other day. Yet Gary Hart had already set in motion a chain of events which was to have devastating consequences.

Approaching a road bridge on the M62, half a mile away from Great Heck, Hart's Land Rover and trailer slid off the road and down an embankment. It crashed through two fences and came to rest on the rail tracks.

A court later decided that Hart had fallen asleep. But by the time his Land Rover had stopped, he was fully awake. Grabbing his mobile phone, he made a desperate call to emergency services. It was already too late.

The GNER express, travelling at nearly 125mph, was barely seconds away. It smashed into the Land Rover and derailed. But it continued upright - towards Great Heck - before being stopped by the only object in its path, a freight train.

The crash sent the Freightliner into nearby gardens and scattered carriages from the GNER train down an embankment and into farmers' fields.

Emergency services described the carnage as "like a scene from a bomb explosion". The crash shocked the nation. Ten men were killed, more than 70 people were injured.

For the survivors and relatives of the bereaved the nightmare goes on. As Margitta Needham, whose husband Barry was one of the ten fatalities, says: "A year later, I feel a mixture of emotions - deep sadness, anger, but also hope. Trauma can cause lasting effects. We are left to live with the consequences of what happened."

A year on and looking across the rail track to the field where stricken carriages finally came to rest, little remains to remind people of that terrible day. Great Heck villagers like it that way.

There is a memorial garden, which has become a shrine to the event. Villagers had a say in its design and are fiercely protective of it. They were bracing themselves today for the world once again to visit the tiny village and crowd its streets.

Every day they think of "that day" and the influx of media will only serve to further remind them.

One resident, who helped emergency services at the scene a year ago, said: "People come here to visit the memorial garden and, at the end of the day, get back in their cars. Then they're gone.

"We are the people who have to live here - and live with it - every single day. That will never go away. The anniversary brings it all back.

"This will be an event which will stay with everyone in Great Heck for the rest of their lives."

They used to barely notice the trains speed through the village. Now every time someone hears the distinctive sound of locomotive and carriages, it is as if time itself has stood still.

They stop what they are doing and look, as if checking to make sure it can't happen again.

And what has it all meant? Two reports, the product of nearly a year of work, say the chance of another Great Heck bringing life to a halt is "slim, but not insignificant".

We were assured that money was no object, that no price could be put on a human life. Safety is paramount, was the almost hysterical, but comforting, mantra. Road bridges, partly to blame for this terrible accident, will be checked.

But, now we are told that if defects are found, work will have to wait its turn along with everything else.

The Government should have been listening to the outpouring of grief from Great Heck, but little seems to have changed.

That has rightly angered survivors, who feel their sacrifice and that of those who died could have been in vain.

Many authorities have taken their own lead. North Yorkshire County Council is already at work, pumping £100,000 into repairing four road-over-rail bridges. Much more needs to be done.

But such talk is for another day. Today was a time to remember those who died in this terrible accident, which still tugs the heartstrings each time it appears in a headline or on a television screen.

And so the focus once again falls on a tiny village, which unwillingly bore the brunt of national spotlight 12 months ago.

But this time, once the memorial services are over and the cars and people again leave Great Heck, we should not forget those who live in the village and who have to remember what happened every day.

Updated: 11:13 Thursday, February 28, 2002