A passenger on the train that derailed in East Sussex has described how people and gadgets sailed through the air after a ‘violent jolt’, before passengers broke out ‘screaming’.
Twenty people were hospitalised after the Southern Rail train carrying 150 people came off the tracks near Lewes station just before 4pm on Thursday, including two with ‘severe’ injuries.
The rear three carriages were thrown on to their sides after apparently hitting a section of badly buckled track, leaving around 40 passengers trapped inside.
Teddy Birkbeck, 18, boarded the train from London Victoria at Gatwick after flying back from a lads’ holiday in Albufeira, Portugal, with his cousin and friend.
He said the train had already been delayed in its journey to the airport, with officials explaining over the intercom that it was ‘due to the heat’.
Mr Birkbeck, a farmer from Sussex, told the Daily Mail: ‘It felt like there was something wrong from the start. There were two sudden jolts soon after we left Gatwick. My mate even joked, “That hurt!”
‘Then it was all smooth going – until we got near Lewes.’
The trio were among eight people travelling in the rear carriage, which ultimately careered furthest down the bank.
Teddy Birkbeck, 18 (centre), with his cousin Charlie Hobden (left) and their friend were making their way home from a lads’ holiday in Albufeira, Portugal
Mr Birkbeck described people and gadgets sailing through the air
The rear three carriages overturned and fell off the rail track
Images appeared to show a section of badly buckled track just behind the train, with experts suggesting this may have happened due to the extreme heat
Mr Birkbeck was watching TikToks on his phone, nursing a ‘slight hangover’ from the holiday, when he felt a ‘violent jolt’.
He said: ‘The train suddenly started to lean from side to side, and things were floating around the carriage in slow motion, like we were in space.
‘I saw my mate’s laptop go through the air, and a bottle of water as well. Then we slammed down on our side.
‘I screwed my eyes shut, but it felt like we were in a car that was drifting after the brakes had been slammed on. I thought to myself: “I am going to be seriously hurt here.”
‘We were sitting on the left of the carriage, so it wasn’t too bad in the end, but people on the right flew from their seats and fell down on to our side.
‘Everyone was silent for about 30 seconds – though it felt like an hour – and then people started screaming. Some were really panicking. It was difficult to know which way was up or down.
‘I had smacked my head on something, and saw that some people were bleeding.’
Charlie Hobden, Mr Birkbeck’s cousin, said it felt like they were ‘in a washing machine’ when the carriage tumbled over onto the embankment.
The rear carriage, in which Mr Birkbeck and his friends were travelling, skidded furthest down the embankment
Some passengers were able to clamber through the emergency doors onto the sides of the overturned carriages
Mr Birkbeck’s view from the track after being helped out of the carriage by emergency workers
Images from the scene show that the rear carriage slid around ten metres down the slope to the left of the track, bulldozing trees and coming to rest in the adjacent field.
Three of the carriages whipped over, while the front five remained upright. Behind the stricken rear carriage could be seen a section of track that looked to have buckled severely, with several sharp swerves along it.
James MacCleary, the Lewes MP, said concerns had been raised about the condition of tracks in the area due to the sustained heatwaves.
He told Times Radio: ‘I had a meeting literally last week with [Greater Thameslink Railway], who are the parent company of Southern Rail, and we did discuss the track and the fact that it has been a bit bumpier in recent months, which is possibly a result of the incredibly hot weather we’ve had recently.’
A temperature of 38.1C was recorded at Kew Gardens in west London on Thursday, making it officially the hottest day of the year.
Mr Birkbeck continued: ‘Another passenger eventually managed to get the emergency exit open so people could climb out on top, but we decided to stay inside because it was actually cooler to begin with.
‘There were also a couple of elderly ladies who were distressed, so we wanted to stay and help them.
‘I had to force the door into the driver’s compartment at the back of the carriage to get the first aid kit.’
South East Coast Ambulance Service said around 150 people were on board the train, and 20 were injured. It said two people were rushed to the major trauma centre with ‘severe’ injuries, while a further 18 patients were also in hospital.
Three air ambulances and at least 20 other emergency vehicles raced to the scene, while a number of passengers who did not require hospital treatment were taken to a local community centre to be triaged and supported.
People had to readjust their bearings inside the carriages that had completely turned onto their sides
Emergency workers used a stretcher to transport a passenger away from the train
Three air ambulances took off from the scene at around 6pm, evacuating the last of the passengers rescued from the train
Josh Babarinde, MP for Eastbourne, the train’s destination, said that one of his constituents had suffered a broken rib, while other passengers described seeing people bloodied and with head wounds.
Photographs from the scene show emergency workers stretchering off wounded passengers and guiding others by the hand down the tracks.
The air ambulances took off at around 6pm, carrying the last of the passengers rescued from the carriages.
Of the emergency responders, Mr Birkbeck said he ‘couldn’t credit them enough’.
He told us: ‘They were absolutely brilliant. They put ladders down inside the carriage so we could climb up onto the train’s side, and then helped us down onto the ground.
‘All the passengers were in total bewilderment; everyone was quite quiet. But the ambulance crews and police were amazing at keeping us calm.
‘It’s all such a blur. I am still shaking hours after getting back from the adrenaline.’
Another passenger, father-of-two Liton Miah from Eastbourne, travelling with his wife and daughters, said he had noticed going past a warning sign at the side of the track.
He said: ‘I saw on the big board there was a problem with the track. I don’t know why they didn’t take any precautions. I saved my family and tried to help another couple. The guy was bleeding heavily and there was not much I could do to help him.’
Rob Bradley, who was travelling from London Victoria to Eastbourne with his six-year-old daughter Mabel when the crash happened, said they were in the carriage next to those that overturned.
He said his daughter had been dancing between the carriages just 30 seconds before the derailment.
Mr Bradley told the BBC: ‘As she sat down we felt the train speeding up and started to rock. Then our carriage jumped vertically upwards and we could tell it was a derailment.
‘The emergency brakes went on the train and everything got thrown forward.
‘The train skidded for quite a while before it stopped. We turned around and we saw the whole back of the train was open and smoke and dust were pouring into the carriage and we saw the fifth carriage had gone on its side.
‘We are doing okay. We were very lucky.’
The cause of the derailment has not yet been confirmed
A huge emergency response including ten fire engines descended on the scene near Lewes station
A passenger dragging her luggage across a field after evacuating the stricken train
The cause of the derailment has not been confirmed but transport experts have raised the possibility that the exceptional heat contributed to the crash by causing the rails to buckle or the dry ground beneath them to collapse.
One suggestion from transport expert Christian Wolmar was that the prolonged heat and drought could have caused the ground beneath the train to dry out and crack, causing part of that bank to give way, leaving the rails without proper support.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘Well, there are two possible reasons this has happened.
‘Obviously, the train track might have buckled before the train arrived. But because the first carriages didn’t derail, it might be that the dryness from the heat has led to the embankment collapsing, and then the train made the rails buckle rather than the other way round.
‘I noticed yesterday when I was out on Hampstead Heath for the eclipse. There’s just great big fissures in [the ground], big openings like there’s been an earthquake, and that must be happening in many places.
‘So it could be that there’s something like that that caused the embankment to partially collapse, and then the rails buckled under the weight of the train because the rails were unsupported. Which could be the more likely explanation given that the first four carriages didn’t go down.’
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was ‘deeply concerned’ following the incident.
She wrote on X: ‘Grateful to emergency services who are on the scene supporting those impacted. We are working quickly with the rail industry and local partners to assist passengers.’
Network Rail said it had launched an investigation into the cause of the derailment.
Southern Railway said all lines through Lewes had been closed to allow emergency services to reach the scene and warned passengers to expect major disruption until 10pm.
The operator said: ‘A train has derailed in the Lewes area. This has closed all lines running through this station.
‘As a result of this, trains are currently unable to run through the area to allow the emergency services to attend the incident.
‘Major disruption is expected until 10pm.’
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch deployed investigators to establish how the Southern service came off the tracks.
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