More rail crash victims named

A carriage is lifted from the wreckage at Selby

Crash investigators are continuing to pick through the mangled wreckage of the Selby rail crash, as more of the dead are named.

Police last night revised the estimated death toll from 13 to 10, but added they were prepared for the possible discovery of more bodies.

Young father Christopher Hugh Terry, 30, a software trainer from York and 43-year-old IT manager Robert Shakespeare from Beverley, East Yorkshire, were named as victims.

Click here to see a map of the accident.

Church warden Mr Terry, 30, had been travelling from York to London for a job interview when he was caught up in the accident in the village of Great Heck.

Wife Vanessa is being comforted by friends and family at the house they shared with their three-year-old son Benedict.

GNER customer operations leader Raymond Robson remains missing

Colleagues of a university professor missing since the crash said they feared he was one of the unaccounted-for victims.

Staff at Teesside University said Professor Steve Baldwin, who pioneered research into the controversial children's drug Ritalin, had been missing for several days and it was believed he had boarded the train.

Recovery teams began lifting the first of the carriages away from the track in Friday.

Straps and chains were placed around one of the wrecked carriages and a giant crane slowly lifted it into a field at the side of the track.

Supt Tony Thompson of British Transport Police said: "This is the start of a long and difficult process which is likely to take many hours.

"It is possible more bodies may be found when some of the carriages are lifted but until we look we cannot know for sure."

Relatives have continued to lay flowers at the scene

Police are hoping to complete the recovery operation by Sunday and hand over the site to Railtrack on Monday.

The Archbishop of York, the Rt Rev David Hope, visited the scene on Friday and said he had intended to travel on the fateful express but cancelled at the last minute.

It has also emerged that insurance claims by victims of the crash could run into "tens of millions of pounds".

But Fortis Insurance, the company which provides insurance for Gary Hart, the Land Rover driver who sparked off the disaster, said it could cover the cost of the claims, which could amount to the biggest case in Britain's car insurance history.

Mr Hart was described by his stepfather Martyn Taylor as being "inconsolable with grief" after the GNER express train hit his vehicle before crashing almost head-on with a goods train on Wednesday morning.

Police said the possibility that Mr Hart, from the village of Strubby in Lincolnshire, fell asleep at the wheel was among aspects of the accident being investigated, although his family denied this.

Also confirmed among the dead were the driver of the GNER train John Weddle, a divorced father-of-two from Throckley, near Newcastle, and one of the drivers of the goods train, Stephen Dunn, a 39-year-old father-of-two from Brayton, Selby.

A chef on the GNER train, Paul Taylor, from the Newcastle area, also died.

GNER added that a third member of its crew, customer operations leader Raymond Robson, 43, from Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, was "unaccounted for".

Mr Taylor's wife Lee and mother Mavis said they did not blame Mr Hart and that their thoughts were with him and his family.

Police officers recover personal possessions

Mr Robson's sister, Judith Cairncross, said: "The railway was his life and he loved his job. The early train to London was Ray's favourite and over the years, during shift changes, he did what he could to make sure he kept his place on that run."

The Bishop of Doncaster, the Right Reverend Cyril Ashton, said a memorial service for the victims of the crash would be held at 3pm on Sunday afternoon at Hensall Parish Church, a mile from the crash scene.

A service of commemoration will be held at York Minster once funerals have taken place.

On Friday, 33 of the 70 people injured in the crash remained in hospital, with two in a critical condition.

An emergency number 0207 8347777 has been set up for members of the public concerned about friends and relatives.

Return to text