Train crash driver: I'm so sorry

THE truckie whose semi-trailer ploughed into a train, leading to 11 people losing their lives, broke down in front of a survivor, weeping: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" and was shaking his head in disbelief.

Survivors of yesterday's train smash, at a level crossing on the border of NSW and Victoria, have started recounting the horror as authorities also announced the number of people unaccounted for has now dropped down to two.

Eleven people were confirmed dead and 23 passengers injured - four critically - when a semi-trailer collided with a packed commuter train in rural Victoria yesterday.

Rescuers have today begun the heartbreaking work of recovering more bodies from the wreckage.

Police, emergency service workers and sniffer dogs have been used to complete the grim task of retrieving bodies from the wrecked carriages.

The traumatised semi-trailer driver who slammed into the train remains in hospital and is too ill to be quizzed by police.

A witness today revealed how dazed truckie Christiaan Scholl shook his head and said "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," in the moments after the smash.

It also emerged that a female conductor on the train miraculously survived as people died around her in the destroyed buffet carriage.

Drug sniffer dogs today checked the crumpled truck wreckage and found no evidence of illicit substances.

Kerang man Brian Frishot said the distraught truck driver apologised about the crash when he ran to his aid.

Mr Frishot, who also helped ambulance officers treat the injured and has barely slept since the crash, said he was shocked to discover one of the dead lying at his feet was a boy that he knew.

The truckie at the centre of the rail disaster was a veteran driver with a respected Victorian freighting business.

Christiaan "Dutchie" Scholl had recently returned to work from holidays and was en route to Adelaide from Wangaratta when the tragedy unfolded.

Mr Scholl, in his 40s, has been a driver with long-established Wangaratta transport group Canny Carrying Co for more than 20 years.

Meanwhile, another passenger, identified as Lenley Fraser, has described the impact today - saying she heard a "big bang'' before her carriage filled with dust and debris.

"I saw the lady sitting across from me had facial wounds and another lady was thrown to the floor with blood coming out of her mouth and eye,'' Ms Fraser told the Nine Network.

She praised the staff on the train for their help after the crash.

"The staff were really excellent,'' she said.

"They were saying to help one another because we can't help you all.''

Earlier today senior police warned the smash will have "national repercussions" - indicating there are potentially fatal problems across Australia's transport network.

Victorian Assistant Police Commissioner Noel Ashby said investigators would reconstruct the crash scene at the level crossing on the Murray Valley Highway near Kerang, where a truck smashed into a passenger train travelling from Swan Hill to Melbourne yesterday.

"Before we come out with anything definitive or anything even speculative we would really like to make sure our facts are solid," Mr Ashby told Channel 9.

"The immensity of this investigation will be considerable and will have national repercussions."

He said level crossing accidents had been an issue around Australia.

"Here we see an ordinary place where ordinary people are going about their business in country Victoria and suddenly they are dead, and in large numbers," he said.

"That tragedy bites with people and resonates, and it is very very difficult to deal with in many circumstances."

What is your reaction to the tragedy? Do you know of any similar potential accident spots elsewhere in Australia? Let us know via the feedback form below.

The fully laden semi-trailer smashed into the train at a level-crossing 6km north of Kerang, on the Murray Valley Highway about 280km north of Melbourne, at 1.40pm.

The impact of the collision split the three-carriage train – which had left Swan Hill station 40 minutes earlier with 40 passengers on board – in two.

Passengers have told of their horror of witnessing the semi-trailer plough into the second carriage of the Melbourne-bound train before ripping away the third compartment. That carriage came to rest about 150m behind the main wreck.

A survivor described how a woman cried out, "Oh my God, that truck is not going to stop", only moments before the impact.

"The truck just didn't stop, he tried. I don't know whether he didn't see the train until the last minute, but he tried to divert and hit the carriage behind me and we just felt it," another passenger, Sue Fyffe, who joined fellow survivors in a desperate rescue mission, said.

"It just felt as if the whole train was going to derail.

"The carriage behind mine is just half gone – there's a big gaping hole in the carriage behind."

The shattered remnants of the truck were left at the point of impact.

The regular passenger service, which had left Swan Hill station at 1pm, was scheduled to stop in Kerang about the time of the smash. The train was scheduled to arrive in Melbourne at 5.09pm.

Another truck driver travelling just 500m behind the crash vehicle told how he saw the prime mover's trailer fly into the air as it hit the train.

"It didn't look real," Swan Hill heavy haulage driver Peter Scott said.

Victorian Police Inspector Michael Talbot said many of those on the train would not have seen the impact coming.

"They would have thought a bomb had gone off like it did in London," he said.

Investigations have begun into why the semi-trailer's driver failed to stop at the level-crossing, which was fitted with flashing lights but no boom gate.

The driver, Christian "Dutchie" Scholl, who suffered head injuries in the crash, was last night flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious condition.

Among the four passengers in critical to serious condition in hospitals across Victoria were a 15-year-old girl and an elderly man believed to have spinal injuries.

Six other injured passengers were at Kerang Hospital and another 11, described as "walking wounded", were being treated at a relief centre at the town's hall.

Passing motorists and survivors toiled to save others in the aftermath of the tragedy, including two locals who hauled the driver from his mangled cabin.

Survivor Helena Schloesser described how many of the injured and dead were missing limbs.

"I was in the third part of the train. An old lady died there, there were a lot of people missing legs and arms," the German backpacker said.

The bodies of some passengers were trapped in several rows of seats compacted into the back 5m of the second carriage. Another of the dead was thrown from the train's second carriage and one died in the third.

Police disaster identification experts were last night on the scene.

Victoria Police Inspector Steve Gibson said rescuers would continue searching through the wreckage until everyone had been found.

As the search continued last night, a shocked Victorian Premier Steve Bracks flew to the crash site.

Mr Bracks vowed a full investigation and said he would do whatever he could to provide resources and support for those involved in the crash.

"(It) is a horrific accident and certainly my heart goes out to the family and friends of those people," Mr Bracks said.

Prime Minister John Howard said he was "deeply saddened" by the "heartbreaking" smash.

"Like all Australians, I was deeply saddened to hear the news of the tragic accident . . . ," Mr Howard said.

"It is heartbreaking."

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21856687-5001021,00.html