On 5th January, just before 9:00am a series of minor events led to tragic circumstances. 30-year-old Moira Koune, a teacher recently engaged and soon to marry, was driving in South Drove, near Spalding in Lincolnshire where the conditions were “Arctic” making the roads very icy.

It is thought that the woman slipped on the ice, losing control of her car and veering slightly into the opposite lane and oncoming traffic. She then clipped a van, skidding a further 70 feet on sheet ice onto a level crossing. In these unfortunate circumstances the timing was fatal, as only seconds later the barriers came down leaving the woman penned in on the railway track.

Witnesses said that the driver “was making frantic” attempts to drive off the crossing, but due to the icy conditions the track was like a “skating rink” and the front tyre was stuck in the side of a railway sleeper so she was unable to move the car.

Maybe she thought that leaving her car would “endanger” the lives of the passengers on-board the train or perhaps she hadn’t realised there was a train approaching, or she could have just frozen in panic as it is unlikely that in this situation she would have been thinking clearly. Whatever the actual reason for her staying in the car it had drastic effects as, 40 seconds later, a train ploughed into her at 50mph. The woman was killed instantly and her body was thrown 40 feet, landing on a bridge while the Rover 261 SI was shoved a quarter of a mile down the track and torn in two.

The white Transit van that the woman had clipped was able to steer off the track, but when the driver saw the amber lights and the barriers come down, he and a passenger sprinted back to help the woman but were unable to reach her in time.

The train was an East Midlands Train: the 8:33am, Peterborough to Lincoln and was actually running 2 minutes early at the time of the collision. Although the 18 passengers on-board were sent “sprawling” by the “massive jolt” nobody was hurt and the driver was only “badly shaken” as he had been powerless to avoid the collision.