Making Contact
Please send details to Liz of anyone you would like to know about from your carriage. We are posting these on the web-site. If you recognise yourself, please let Liz know. We may need to think of other ways of finding people who are not Network members.
A message for Mark W – UN survivor coach E
There is a survivor from Coach E who remembers you and knowing you exist helped her piece some facts together. If you can let Liz have your email she would like to make contact with you.
I’m afraid the phone number I believed to be yours was the wrong one so couldn’t get back to you.
MEMBERS OF EMERGENCY and other SERVICES who attended the crash: we know some of you have had a tough time since the crash and a few have been in touch. We are able to facilitate meetings with survivors if these can be of mutual benefit and can also share information about the crash and Inquest, recovery etc. This network is also for you and your families – just email Liz, UNTCN Co-ordinator, in confidence to find out more.
Train Crash Support Is there any interest in joining forces with survivor groups or survivors from other crashes to provide a more accessible focal point for survivors and bereaved of future crashes?
If anyone reading this is from another crash, please make contact with the Co-ordinator, Liz to investigate ideas.
Jo's Request for information
"Once I had got off the train, I sat in that field for what seemed an age and then a lady stopped and sat with me. I wrote a letter to the Newbury Weekly News once trying to locate her but nothing came of it. After I had jumped from the carriage, I made my way over to the field and basically sat where I dropped for the next couple of hours.
After approx. half an hour, someone walked close enough for me to ask for assistance, one of the passengers, if memory serves she was a nurse. She lent me her mobile so I could speak to my mother, and very calmly explained to Mum what happened (apparently I was incoherent), she left me for about 10 minutes and then sat with me for the remainder of the evening, till the ambulances came. She stopped people from moving me, several times police and the ambulance crews kept trying to move me, and 'help' me to my feet because I was directly in the way of the fire engines and ambulances, etc.
At this point no one knew how badly I had been hurt and because I was talking, they assumed I was ok, several times someone leant on my shoulders from behind to talk into my ear. I kept repeating her name over and over, and to my shame I cannot remember it, I couldn't even describe her to you because I was in shock and it was so dark. The only thing that might jog her memory, the firemen rigged up a tarpaulin against the fire engine to keep us both warm and out of the rain.
I have often wondered who this lady was and have wanted to thank her many times for her kindness. I woke up in the dark and alone when the accident happened and this lovely lady kept me calm, held my hand and even lent me her coat even though it was raining and so cold. I just want to say thank you.
I really cannot express to you how this afternoon (meeting up with Liz) has affected me, all I know is I just don't feel so alone now."
Someone in Coach D wants to know about the man who finished up on top of her and helped her find a way out. A young man from another coach who helped several people out of the 'top' of a carriage wants to know what happened to one woman who was badly injured.
Jonathan wants to know about other people's experiences , especially those who, like him, have strong emotional reactions in the presence of trains. Since being linked up to the Network he has been helped to know that he is not alone with his PTSD reactions, though he wishes no-one had problems. He is still in contact with the boys who were with him on the train and they are all well.
He recently managed to brave Reading station to stand by Coach E of a fast train. He had a chat with the train manager about what he was doing, and the train manager 'looked him in the eye, no avoidance or disbelief, and congratulated him on what he was doing.'
One of the boys with him was in the loo at the time of the crash and would love to know who the man was who broke the window and rescued him.
Taxi to Devon - Anita from Leeds Sue would like the Network to contact a lovely lady called Anita travelling from Leeds to her mother's in Padstow as she would like to send her a message. They spent time talking in the taxi which took about 6 people to Exeter. She was met by her sister and was gone before Sue had time to say 'goodbye'.
Carriage D and Others This is a request to all Networkers out there for help and information. I have undergone some sort of change in the past few days, and the result is that I want to try to put some more pieces of the jigsaw together. I think it is a mixture of the news about the inquest and the first anniversary looming that has made me want to, and feel able to, think about what happened to me in the wider context. I suppose I have been avoiding doing this, but then again I have not felt ready, and dealing with my own stuff has consumed all my time and energy.
In the past two days I have read the full Rail Safety and Standards Board report (skimming the technical bits it has to be said), and re-read all the newspaper cuttings and my own witness statement for the first time since last November. I would like to have any news about the people who were around me on the train and who I met after the crash.
I was travelling with my closest friend, who also survived, and everything we have been able to find out points to us being in coach D, on the right hand side of the train (looking in the direction of travel), in two seats together with tables that pull down from the seats in front in the front half of the carriage.
We got on the train at Paddington. Across the aisle from us was a man doing paperwork, with a brown leather bag on the seat beside him. I think I saw him after the crash in the Winning Hand with what was obviously a broken arm, but I was glad that he had survived.
In front of him was a group of four young men at a table who were drinking from cans. Were these the friends I read about in the papers - Paul Griffiths, Ben Simpson, Jon Stace and Henry Howe? I think I saw Jon and his parents in the hospital - I have a memory of him having to be brought back in the same evening as a wound had re-opened or he had another wound that needed treatment but I don't know if this is right.
When our carriage came to a stop, I was wedged upright by train furniture, and my friend was buried underneath a pile of things - I assumed bits of furniture that had come loose. There was a lady in a pink jumper who was next to me, she was travelling with her daughter. I would like to know how they are.
Not far away I could just make out a man who was lying across the debris. He said he had a pacemaker and was a diabetic. There was a lady with him who was comforting him. I have found out that the man must have been Charlie Matthews, who died in hospital the next day. I would like to know how the lady is.
We were led to a broken window to get out of the train by a man who I think had come into our carriage, I'm not sure whether he had been travelling in it. He had a light stick and he told us we should make a move as there was a strong smell of diesel. This galvanised us into action - before that we had been worried that any more movement might make the carriage tip again but he reassured us that it would not move. I would love to be able to thank him for helping us while putting himself back in danger.
There was a lady who walked with us to the Winning Hand. She had short hair in a bob, and I think she wore glasses. I thought at the time she must be a nurse as she knew a lot about our injuries and how they might be treated. She was very reassuring and I would also like to be able to thank her.
At the Royal Berkshire Hospital I sat next to a lady in the waiting room whose appearance I don't remember at all, but she was very kind and kept me talking, and realised that I was about to faint. She called a nurse over which I would not have been able to do, so thank you to her.
And finally there was a lovely police woman who let me use her mobile phone which I gather was not strictly within the rules but it was a lifeline, literally. Jane
Extracts of an e-mail from a Networker in the South West:
I'm am gradually establishing contact with people and telling them about the network. Last weekend was "interesting". The American passenger who was so kind and courageous in looking after me and two other passengers, came for a long weekend with his girlfriend. He filled me in on a lot of detail which I didn't remember. I hadn't realised how much he had actually done to
help me, or how brave he had been, climbing in and out of the wrecked carriage. I shall continue to press for a commendation/award for him.
His girlfriend was able to join him relatively quickly at the Royal Berkshire where his leg injury was treated; we worked out (to our mutual sadness) that whilst I was the other side of a partition feeling desperately distressed and alone in A&E, they were both on the other side.
D.. also managed to fit in a visit to Torquay to meet up with the couple he had helped (the lady was very seriously injured, but is making a really good recovery). I found it really helpful to know, at last - for example - how I had actually got out of the carriage. Poor D..! Apparently when we were told to walk along the track to the road and then the pub, I insisted I was OK, but was practically breaking his arm by clinging to it and digging my fingers in when the pain became intense.
Finally - I would love to know how three people are: a lady in a metallic blanket next to whom I sat on an upturned box when I was first got out of the train (she kindly lent me her mobile). I'd also love to know how the 19-year old beautician, who was in the ambulance with me, is getting on.
A young African woman wants to know how the people are who sat near her. She was in the end seat of the second carriage. An young Asian man at next to her by the window, an older man was reading a paper opposite him and a young man of about 17 sat opposite her. She has no recollection of them being around her when the train crashed. In addition, she especially wants to know about the tall man with a little girl in pink top and trousers who sat nearby. She had watched their luggage while he took his daughter to the toilet and he helped her down from the carriage.