SURVIVORS and victims' relatives of the Selby rail crash wept today as they heard the shocking moment when the train they and their loved ones were travelling on hit a Land Rover at high speed.

They were listening to the 999 call that the vehicle's driver Gary Hart made to North Yorkshire Police at 6.12am on February 28.

Some relatives held hands and others braced themselves as James Goss QC asked court staff to play the tape.

In courtroom number five at Leeds Crown Court they heard Hart tell control room operator Sarah Pratt he had just gone off the M62 and landed on the East Coast mainline.

Hart tried to describe exactly where he was, but the operator was still not clear when Hart said: "But there's a train coming."

"Oh my God," said Miss Pratt. Then the packed courtroom heard the sound of the York to London early morning GNER express going past.

The motorist told the operator: "The train's just gone straight through the front of me Land Rover."

At least one of the relatives appeared distressed enough to require assistance. Police liaison officers and a chaplain are sitting with the relatives and survivors who are packing the courtroom for the trial of Hart.

The 37-year-old of Church Lane, Strubby, near Alford, Lincolnshire, denies ten charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

The prosecution allege that his actions led to the deaths of six passengers and three train crew on the GNER train, and the driver of a freightliner coal train that collided with the passenger train when it was partly derailed by the collision with the Land Rover.

The last moments of Brayton train driver Stephen Dunn were today relived in court.

The jury, victims' relatives and survivors of the train crash were listening to the eyewitness statement of Inspector Andrew Hill, who was riding with Mr Dunn on his final journey.

Edmund Lawson QC, defending, assured the Brayton man's family that he, on behalf on Gary Neil Hart, 37, was not criticising in any way what the driver had done on the morning of February 28.

Hart, of Church Lane, Strubby, Lincolnshire, denies ten charges of causing death by dangerous driving in the tragic train crash.

In a statement read to Leeds Crown Court, Mr Hill said he and Mr Dunn, whom he called Steve, were on their final journey of the day from Immingham to a power station when they turned on to the East Coast main line.

He saw a green signal about 400 yards away as they were approaching Great Heck. But suddenly it turned red.

Steve suddenly said: "What is up with the signals?".

He could not understand what was happening as by now the train was less than 200 yards away and the automatic warning system had not sounded.

He assumed this was because their Freightliner coal train had passed the magnetic trigger at 200 yards before the signal went red.

"Looking straight ahead I saw a yellow flash of light across the track in the distance," said the statement.

Mr Hill then saw an HST travelling towards him at speed and he thought the two trains would pass safely, but it appeared to be closer to his tracks than normal.

Red sparks were flying from the train.

"I wasn't aware of any sideways movement from the approaching train, it just looked as if it would just pass, but within a short space of time I saw what looked like a coach jack-knife out towards our set of tracks."

Mr Hill had already told Mr Dunn to put the emergency brakes on.

"We were a hundred yards away from this coach on a collision course. I said to Steve, 'Steve get out'," said Mr Hill's statement.

In the dark he saw the blue livery of a GNER train in the headlights.

He was standing up and Mr Dunn was at the controls.

The trains collided. Mr Hill did not remember hearing a loud noise.

"I remember coming round, I was unable to breathe, I couldn't see anything. I was in blackness," said the statement. Mr Dunn, 39, died in the crash.

The trial continues

Updated: 15:48 Thursday, November 29, 2001