At 8:11 a.m. last Tuesday, a Great Western High Speed train headed toward London’s Paddington Station collided with another commuter train, crashing with such impact that one carriage was jammed inside another. By the weekend, the confirmed dead numbered 30; 160 passengers were injured, seven seriously. After it emerged that the crash’s immediate cause was a driver running a red light, there were heated debates over the safety of the country’s rail system. Experts cited the similarities between last week’s accident and a crash in nearby Southall in 1997. One note, left at a shrine of flowers and cards near the crash site, captured Britain’s sad and bitter mood: “No train protection on board, no second man with the driver, saving money is easy, losing loved ones is hard.”
The dead were ordinary Britons–information-technology consultants, a senior civil servant, a high-school caretaker–killed on an ordinary commute to work. Victims’ briefcases were bagged as evidence. As a group of rescuers stood near the site, a mobile phone rang. People reached for their pockets–until they realized the ringing was coming from somewhere inside the wreckage. Mobiles continued to ring sporadically; some came from the front car of the Great Western–the first-class “Carriage H” that burst into flames soon after impact. After two days, say rescue workers, the ringing stopped.
