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Ten years on, Paddington crash survivors tell of battle to recover
Peter Dominiczak02.10.09
Bereaved families and survivors of the Paddington rail disaster today described their harrowing battle to rebuild their lives.
A decade after the horrific crash that claimed dozens of lives, they told the Evening Standard of their long fight for compensation and of the brutal physical and mental effects of the disaster.
Thirty-one people died when a Thames Trains commuter service ran through a red light and crashed into a Paddington-bound First Great Western train on 5 October 1999.
The Thames Trains driver was among those killed and hundreds more were injured in one of Britain's worst train disasters, with many suffering horrific burns.
On Monday survivors and relatives of those who died will gather at the memorial stone near Ladbroke Grove, where the crash happened, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the disaster.
Helen Mitchell, 46, from Stroud, was forced to give up her job as a research fellow and suffered severe psychological trauma after the crash.
She was finally given compensation in 2004 after a campaign by the Standard.
Ms Mitchell said: "I saw a lot of things nobody should ever have to see. I saw people burning, I saw limbs and other things that are too horrible to describe. The crash still plays on my mind. It will for ever."
She said when she got the compensation she was finally able to start rebuilding her life. "The Evening Standard's campaign was incredible. As soon as it happened, the insurance company were off my back. I got my final settlement in September 2004. It made such a huge difference to my life. It allowed me to try to get over what had happened."
Linda di Lieto, 59, whose son Sam, 24, was killed on his way to work, said she still struggles with the effects of the disaster every day.
She said: "My head tells me it was 10 years ago, but my heart tells me it was just yesterday. You never get over losing a child, but you have to learn to somehow cope with the loss."
Mrs di Lieto said she was still angry that the individuals responsible for the crash were never held to account. She added: "I'll have to live with the pain of what happened for ever. Sam is always missing from our lives.
"All we ever wanted was to get our questions answered about how the crash happened. We'll never be able to pin down those responsible."
Jonathan Duckworth, 51, chairman of the Paddington Survivors Group, was in coach G of the First Great Western train and was injured when the carriage overturned.
He has battled for years to turn his life around after the crash. He said: "After the crash I just wanted to mentally curl up. Now I'm 97 per cent cured but there is always going to be something there in the background.
"There are certain triggers that bring the horrors of the crash straight back. But in the last five years I've been able to rebuild my life."
Mr Duckworth said that almost all of the survivors had now been compensated, but that the sums of money were far too small.
He said: "I got a reasonable sum of money but I don't have a pension and the money they gave me won't even come close to making up for what I lost in the crash."
Janette Orr, 46, from Swindon, suffered injuries to her neck and back during the crash. She now suffers from arthritis and said she wasn't given suitable compensation.
She said: "The insurance companies put us through so much and then gave me a sum of money that just wasn't nearly enough.
"I think of the disaster every day. The visions that I have of being on that train are as clear today as they were 10 years ago."
