A DISTRAUGHT train driver has told of his horror as he tried in vain to stop his train from hitting a man who was desperately trying to run out of its path.
Father-of-three Nigel Conroy Summersgill, 39, of Exchange Street, Accrington, died after being hit by the Preston-bound train as it passed through Church and Oswaldtwistle station at about 11.30pm on Friday, September 3, an inquest heard.
And driver Sean Tierney told how the train would have missed Mr Summersgill completely if he had jumped on to the opposite tracks when he saw the train coming towards him.
Mr Tierney told the inquest that his train was travelling from Colne at normal speed when he spotted a man on the line.
He said: "I put on the emergency brakes and sounded the horn.
"By then he was in between my tracks and he turned round looking shocked.
"He tried to run and climb on to the platform, but it was too late and the side of the train hit him.
"If he had stepped six feet back in the direction he had come I would have missed him completely."
Mr Tierney and conductor John Barber rang the emergency services and tried to keep Mr Summersgill's airways clear as they thought he was still breathing, but he died.
His partner Susan Grundy broke down as she told how he had gone out for the evening in Blackburn with his friend Bernard McKay. She didn't go as she was feeling unwell after having a tooth out but had encouraged him to go out and enjoy himself.
She said: "I told him not to take a key as I would wait up for him as he always got the last train. I stayed up all night worrying about him."
Mr Summersgill, a senior project engineer at British Aerospace, Samlesbury, had just had his divorce from his wife Janet, who he was still on good terms with, finalised two days before his death.
The jury of five women and six men recorded a verdict of accidental death.
Coroner Michael Singleton said: "Nigel Summersgill made one fatal error that night and that was the foolish decision to cross the line.
"Whether or not his decision was influenced because he had something to drink we will never know.
"Mr Tierney was simply going about his work and no doubt the events of this evening will stay with him for the rest of his life.
"Railways are dangerous places, and trains cannot stop suddenly or swerve to avoid an obstruction."
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