Four hurt as train strikes tree on track
ATRAIN crashed after colliding with a tree which had fallen on the tracks, resulting in two people being taken to hospital.
The crash took place near LLanbradach railway station, in Caerphilly, at around 10.05pm on Sunday, affecting Arriva Trains Wales’ Rhymney service.
Six ambulances, five fire crews and the police were called to the scene after four of the 17 people on board the train suffered minor injuries.
Two of them were taken to hospital to receive treatment – one to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil and one to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport. The train was not derailed as a result of the crash and services were running normally yesterday morning.
The damage caused to the train itself was quite extensive after the window of the driver’s carriage was smashed by the tree and passenger windows also smashed as a result of the crash.
One of the doors of the train was also damaged with debris spread across the train carriage.
Investigations are have now been launched by National Rail and Arriva Trains Wales to find out why the tree had fallen on to the track.
Arriva Trains Wales director Gareth Thomas said: “We can confirm that one of our services struck a tree on the line north of Llanbradach on Sunday night and that four people were injured.
“The incident left our driver shaken up and the train badly damaged, however the train remained on the tracks.
“The safety of our customers and staff is always our first concern and we worked closely with our partners in Network Rail throughout the incident to ensure the train was safe and to clear the track so the train could proceed to Ystrad Mynach where taxis had been arranged to meet passengers and take them home.
“Together with Network Rail we will be investigating the causes of this incident and we would like to thank all those onboard for their patience during what was clearly a very distressing incident.”
The British Transport Police said they had ruled out any criminal aspect to the tree being on the tracks and said their involvement in the case had ceased.