Delivery driver killed by train while making 999 call after crash
John Fletcher, 47, was making a delivery to a farm in Nocton, Lincs, when his van crashed through a brick wall, landing upside down on the tracks, 20 feet below, where he was hit by a locomotive. A jury sitting at Lincoln Crown Court returned a verdict of accidental death yesterday at the end of a four-day inquest into the death, which Mr Fletcher's wife Sally described as a "tragic accident." Mr Fletcher, a father-of-three, was making a delivery at around 6.20pm on February 28 last year exactly a year after the Selby rail disaster when the accident happened. The devoted family man had spoken to his wife only half-an-hour before when he took a wrong turning on a country lane and slammed into the wall at the side of an old railway bridge.
The road was covered in moss and was wet and slippery and a sign to say No Through Road was "considerably faded" and hidden in a hedge, Coroner Roger Atkinson told the court.
As Mr Fletcher spotted the wall he slammed on the brakes but was left with no time to stop. Mr Atkinson said: "In all the circumstances considering the directions and visibility and the conditions of the road surface on the approach one can well understand that a driver at night who did not know the road might well end up as Mr Fletcher did.
"We shall never know why he did not go into the farm premises and continued round the bend."
Mr Fletcher, a keen hockey player and community worker, landed upside down on the tracks where he called the emergency services. Apparently unhurt, he calmly told the operator where he was but as she tried to contact British Transport Police the sound of a train was heard approaching and the line went quiet. Mr Fletcher died almost instantly. His wife,
Sally said: "we would like to thank everybody who has helped us through this very difficult time."
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