Fatal rail crash memorial to open

Ms Hawker felt she was "in a huge tumble dryer"

A memorial garden is being opened on the fifth anniversary of a rail crash in which seven people died.

The crash happened when a high-speed train hit a car, deliberately parked by a suicidal driver on an unmanned level crossing in Ufton Nervet, Berkshire.

Another 120 people were injured on the London-to-Plymouth service, on Saturday 6 November 2004, 18 of them seriously.

The garden, established near the site of the crash, aims to help people reflect quietly on the tragedy.

I did not know when it would end and I was very surprised to find myself alive when it did end Crash survivor Jane Hawker

It will be opened later, to coincide with the timing of the crash five years ago.

All eight carriages of the 1735 First Great Western service, which was carrying about 300 people, derailed when it hit the car, killing the driver, at about 1815 GMT.

Jane Hawker, who was among the survivors, told BBC News: "I had the experience of feeling that I was in a huge tumble dryer.

"I did not know when it would end and I was very surprised to find myself alive when it did end.

"If you try to ignore it then it will come back to bite you at various times when you are least expecting it and I think it is much more healthy to try to come to terms with it."

The memorial garden is near the scene of the crash

An off-duty Thames Valley police officer saw the vehicle being driven on to the crossing, close to the A4 between Reading and Newbury, and the barriers come down.

In November 2007, an inquest jury found 48-year-old car driver Brian Drysdale had deliberately killed himself.

The jurors recorded the train driver and five passengers had been unlawfully killed.

Train driver Stanley Martin, 54, from Torquay, Devon; Barry Strevens, 55, from Wells, Somerset; Emily Webster, 14, from Morehampstead, Devon; Anjanette Rossi, 38, from Speen, Berkshire and her daughter Louella Main, nine, died in the crash.

Leslie Matthews, 72, from Warminster, Wiltshire died in hospital the following day.

A car parked on the a crossing derailed the train