A MOTHER has spoken of the terrifying moment her disabled daughter was pulled towards a speeding freight train at Twyford Station earlier this month.
Jane Holmes was travelling to London for a day out with her 14-year-old daughter Kitty on Thursday, April 7, when the frightening ordeal unfolded.
The pair were waiting for the 10.54am train on platform 4 when a freight train sped through the station, and the force of the air sent Kitty flying towards the tracks.
Jane said: “It was awful, I still don’t know completely what happened, it happened so quickly.
“We had arrived at the station early so we could get a disabled parking space, we bought our tickets and made our way to the platform. We were stood well back from the edge and I had applied the brakes on Kitty’s wheelchair before I went to get myself a coffee from the kiosk.
“A freight train was coming into the station and I looked down the platform to see if our train was behind it, I was looking for only a matter of seconds but when I turned back Kitty was gone.
“I looked round and saw she was several feet down the platform and had actually hit the side of the train.”
Jane said that a fellow passenger had managed to grab hold of Kitty, who has cerebral palsy, to stop her from hitting the train again and pulled her away to safety.
She said: “Kitty was screaming and was terrified.
“Her wheelchair had taken the brunt of the impact, and my bag that I had put over the handles was pretty much destroyed.
“Amazingly Kitty is OK, she had quite a bruised foot and she was really shaken up for a couple of hours afterwards, but she is OK, that is the main thing.
“Kitty has a manual wheelchair which is perhaps a bit lighter than an electronic one, but the total weight would have been around 100kgs, and the brakes were on. It is just incredible that she managed to travel so far.
“I checked the chair afterwards and amazingly the brakes were still on.
“If she had fallen between the carriages she would have been killed, there is no doubt about that. My blood runs cold whenever I think about it.
“I was just in shock, I didn’t manage to get the woman’s name or number or anything, all I know is that she was Kitty’s guardian angel that day, she very well may have saved her life.”
Mrs Holmes said that a member of staff from the ticket office ran over to see if her daughter was ok, and the incident was referred to Great Western Railway’s specialist investigation team to try and discover exactly what happened.
Jane said: “I honestly don’t know if she was pulled or pushed towards the train, but if it was something to do with the train safety measures will need to be put in place.
“Disabled people quite often travel alone, and I dread to think what would have happened it this had happened to someone in a wheelchair travelling on their own.
“We are just so lucky that Kitty came out of this OK, I feel like I am going to wake up from a dream and the reality would have been so much worse.”
A spokesperson for Great Western Railways said: “There are many potential risks around the railway, but stations are perfectly safe if very simple rules are followed:
• Always stand behind the yellow line while waiting for a train
• Listen to instructions from members of staff on the platform
• Pushchairs and wheelchairs should never be left unattended, and brakes should be engaged
• Listen out for safety advice and look out for information posters
“We are investigating an incident at Twyford Station where an unattended wheel chair rolled towards a passing freight train. We are incredibly grateful that no one was seriously injured, and are conducting an internal investigation.
“On completion of our investigation we will be more than happy to discuss the findings with the family involved.”
