A DELIVERY driver who was trapped in his van on a railway line after it ran down an embankment was making a 999 call as a train struck him, an inquest was told yesterday.

The van of John Fletcher, 47, crashed through a brick wall and fell 20ft on to the tracks in Nocton, Lincolnshire, landing upside down, minutes before the locomotive hit.

Mr Fletcher was making a delivery to a farm on February 28 last year when the accident happened. A Ukrainian farm-worker saw the white Mercedes van speed past his hostel and heard it brake before there was a loud bang.

The worker ran down to the track and heard the driver shout for help, but as he got close he saw the train coming and was forced to run back from the track.

Jurors at Lincoln Crown Court listened intently to the two-minute 999 tape. Mr Fletcher calmly told the female operator: “I am on the railway line now.”

The operator asked Mr Fletcher if he was OK and he replied yes.

He added: “I can hear something outside at the moment,” and the operator told him to stay on the phone while she spoke to the Transport Police.

Mr Fletcher was heard in the background saying: “Hello, I’m all right,” before the sound of a train approaching was heard and the line went dead.

The farm worker said after the crash he rushed to the train and helped to carry people from the windows, but he could do nothing to save the van driver. Fourteen people from the train required hospital treatment.

Mr Fletcher’s wife, Sally, said that she last spoke to him half an hour before the accident. He had arranged a trip for their silver wedding anniversary, which was a few weeks after his death. The postmistress said that the family, who lived in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, was also looking forward to their daughter’s 21st and twin sons’ 18th birthdays later that year.

The accident happened a year to the day after the Selby rail crash, when ten people were killed after a motorist landed on railway tracks.

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