Memorial call over railway crossing disaster

Annette Stork and her fianc Herbie Donnelly had celebrated their son Jordan's first birthday five days earlier and were taking him to Hull to buy presents.

At 9.50am on Saturday, July 26, 1986, they caught the 9.33am Bridlington to Hull train in Driffield and settled into the first of four carriages.

The train made one more stop, at 9.57am at Hutton Cranswick. Three minutes later – carrying about 120 passengers and travelling at about 50mph - it hit a van on the level crossing at Lockington, causing one of Britain's worst rail disasters.

Nine people died and 59 were injured, 10 seriously.

Miss Stork, who was 23, was thrown through a window and died, while Jordan, who is now 25, and his father, survived unhurt.

Nearly 25 years on, Miss Stork's mother Christine is among a group of victims' families and survivors backing plans for a memorial to the disaster.

The mother-of-three, who used to see Annette every day, said her grief has not diminished and believes a formal tribute to the victims is long overdue.

She did not know they were on the train until Mr Donnelly called from Hull Royal Infirmary, where he and Jordan had been taken. It took almost 12 hours to establish what had happened to Annette, who was identified by her jewellery.

"We thought she was maybe dazed and wandering around," said Mrs Stork, of Northfield Avenue, Driffield.

"You don't think. It was about 9.30pm on the Saturday night that we got it confirmed.

"You just seem to go into overdrive. We had a baby to look after and another granddaughter who was four.

"I don't know how you cope, it never goes away, it changes everybody's life."

Mrs Stork, 69, who described Annette as "bright, bubbly and very popular", often makes the same journey herself and pauses for reflection when she passes the site.

"I go on the train quite a lot because I don't drive," she said. "I always look. I wonder what she would be like now and what she would be doing."

The memorial project is being led by Bridlington-based historian Richard Jones, 29, a communication information systems specialist in the Royal Navy.

Mr Jones, who is writing a book about the crash, has raised more than 800 to fund the memorial, which includes 300 from the Lockington Support Group.

He hopes to have it erected at St Mary's Church, Lockington, in time for the 25th anniversary of the crash next year.

He has interviewed dozens of relatives and survivors, and hopes to tell the story of people like Richard Myerscough, a teacher who was on the train with his wife and two children, who had the courage and the presence of mind to go underneath the train and turn the engines off.

Mr Jones said: "It's just forgotten, it's like it never happened. This was the scene of the most horrific crash. Just about every survivor has broken down and cried when they spoke to me."

He added: "It's only when I visited the families that I thought about a memorial."

Roger Hately, secretary to the Parochial Church Council at St Mary's, said negotiations about whether the memorial could be placed at the church and what form it would take were under way with the Diocese of York.

n Anyone with memories of the crash who would like to contribute to Mr Jones's book can email info@atlantisexploration.

com, or call 01262 676800.