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Truck, train collide in Australia

A passenger train and truck collided at a rail crossing in southern Australia yesterday, killing at least 10 people and injuring up to 50, police said.

"The number of confirmed fatalities has now risen to 10," Victoria state police spokesman Leigh Wadeson said.

Wadeson said he did not know if the latest two fatalities were victims found in the wreckage or were among the known critically injured.

The crash happened about 10km north of the town of Kerang in the north of the southeastern state of Victoria.

At least six ambulances, two helicopters and two fixed wing aircraft were ferrying the injured to hospitals in the area and in Melbourne, some 280km to the south.

A weeping survivor told Sky News from the side of the tracks that she had been in first class two carriages back from the engine when the truck cut the train in half at the crossing.

"The truck just didn't stop," Sue Fyffe said.

"I don't know whether he didn't see the train until the last minute but he tried to diverge and he went off into the dirt and he hit the carriage behind me," she said.

"It just felt as if the whole train was going to derail. The back carriage is about 150m down the track and the carriage behind mine is just half gone, there's a big gaping hole in the side," Fyffe said.

She said she used her first aid training to help some of the injured.

"It was just shocking, it was awful. There were elderly ladies sitting there, with lots of cuts, a couple of them had broken bones. I sat and calmed them and talked to them," Fyffe said.

The train had left Swan Hill in the northwest of southeastern Victoria state at 1pm and was due to arrive at Southern Cross station in Melbourne at 5:09pm, but hit the truck about 40 minutes into the journey.

The general manager of the V/line rail company, Ursula McGuiness, said the crossing was not protected by a boom gate, but had lights and bells.

Gibson said wet conditions were causing problems for emergency workers.

"It's going to be a long-term operation," he said. "We've got all emergency services on site, and working on a co-ordinated effort to get everyone to safety."

The country's worst train disaster occurred in the Sydney suburb of Granville in 1977, when 83 people died after a commuter train derailed and crashed into a road bridge.

In 2003 a train derailed at high speed just south of Sydney after its driver died of a heart attack, killing a total of seven people.
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