'Everyone thought I was dead'

Emergency services carry away one of those who died

The family of a Paddington rail disaster survivor was told she was dead after her railway season ticket was found in a coat wrapped around the body of a victim.

Evelyn Paler escaped from the disaster with minor injuries but used her coat, which also had her work pass in the pocket, to comfort a dying woman.

Before Ms Paler had the chance to contact her parents, police were in touch with her relatives in the mistaken belief that the critically injured passenger wrapped in the coat was her.

Ms Paler, of Sunningwell, near Abingdon, Oxon, told the Oxford Mail newspaper: "As I got out of the wreckage, a lady was staggering towards me but looked in a very bad way.

"She had been impaled by some of the train. I put my coat down for her. Unfortunately my pass for work and season ticket were in the pocket but I didn't think about that.

"I tried to give her all the help I could. When emergency services arrived I left and did not think twice about it."

Called family on mobile

She later borrowed a fellow commuter's mobile phone to let her family know she was uninjured. In the meantime, police had been in touch with her family.

Ms Paler, who works in London, said she considered herself to be very lucky to have survived with just a badly bruised leg.

She said: "I joined the commuter train at 7.29 at Didcot. I was snoozing as I tend to do on the way to work.

"My first recollection was of two big bangs which jolted me awake.

"I opened my eyes to see huge flames down the side of the carriage and thought, this is it."

She added: "My thoughts are with the relatives of those who died and we owe it to them to make sure something is done."