How did she live? MIRACLE ESCAPE 1
Toddler escapes ‘without scratch’ after freight train smashes into her father’s Peugeot on level crossing
A TODDLER miraculously escaped unhurt when a train smashed into a car which her father was attempting to drive across a level crossing yesterday.
Witnesses says it was ‘unbelievable’ that the 16-month-old girl escaped without a scratch, after the Peugeot 307 was crushed by a freight train that was travelling at about 50mph.
The driver managed to get himself out of the car and was arrested at the scene on suspicion of dangerous driving. His daughter was pulled from her rear seat by Lloyd Welham, who lives next to the railway line near Felixstowe, Suffolk.
The 49-year-old mechanic said he was in his garden when he heard the bang and went to investigate.
‘All I could see was smoke,’ he said. ‘I went between the carriages and could see a mangled mess the other side, and there was someone there shouting, “Get the baby out.”’
He then reached into the wreckage to pull the child to safety.
‘I got the baby out, then I picked up the driver who was laying next to the car,’ he said. ‘I looked after him until the paramedics got here.’
He gave the toddler to his partner, Kerry Donoghue, 46, who took her back to their home until the medics arrived.
She said: ‘It was a miracle that the baby was not hurt. She did not have a mark on her at all. How the baby got out without a scratch is just unbelievable.
‘All the windows of the car were smashed, the airbags had gone off and the engine was knocked completely out.’
She added that the girl stayed with them for about 90 minutes, playing with her grandchildren, and added: ‘The paramedics were 100 per cent sure that there was nothing wrong with her, but still decided to take her to hospital.’
The girl and her father, who is in his 30s, were taken to Ipswich Hospital by separate ambulances as a precaution. It is believed that the automatic half barriers and the red flashing lights at the crossing were working properly when the collision happened at 11.15am.
Sergeant Julian Ditcham, of Suffolk Police, confirmed that the driver – who is not believed to have been seriously hurt in the crash – had been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving.
Train services between Ipswich and Felixstowe were cancelled for the rest of the day.