My struggle to save stricken train, by hero driver

The driver who survived the Cumbria rail crash has revealed for the first time how he desperately tried to stop the train after coming round from being knocked unconscious.

Iain Black, 46, told friends how he was catapulted out of his seat and hit his head on the roof when the Virgin Pendolino 'tilting' train hit faulty points at 93mph before being derailed and plunging down an embankment at Grayrigg, near Kendal.

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With blood pouring down his face, Mr Black - a former policeman - came round, crawled back on to his seat and applied the emergency brakes in an attempt to avert the accident, in which Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died and 100 people were injured.

He told friends visiting him in the Royal Preston Hospital: "I am so sorry somebody died. I did my best to stop but there was nothing I could do."

In fact, the brave driver was unaware that as he tried to apply the brakes to the packed train, its automatic braking system had activated after a brake pipe was severed by the rogue points, which had nuts and bolts missing from track stretcher bars connecting sections of rail.

Network Rail, British Trans-port Police and officials from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch are now studying the train's black-box accident recorder.

Mr Black, from Dumbarton, suffered a broken collar bone, neck injuries and cuts and bruises in the crash nine days ago.

A union source said: "When the train struck the points, Iain was projected out of his seat and hit the roof of his cab. He was knocked out for a couple of seconds.

"He kept applying the brake even when it hit a stanchion holding up the power lines and up to the moment the train flipped around and ran down the embankment.

"He could have run away from trouble but he stayed, trying to save the lives of his passengers."

Mr Black is expected to be interviewed this week by police and accident investigators.

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has described him as a 'hero'.

Experts said it was amazing more people were not killed or seriously hurt.

The investigation into the crash is set to last several months.