North-East rail passengers have come perilously close to being involved in a major disaster on numerous occasions in the last year, it has emerged.

Since ten people were killed in the Selby train crash last February, no less than 13 similar accidents have been reported on the East Coast main line.

The figure was described as "truly astonishing" by one of the main campaigners for improvements to the region's crumbling railway bridges.

Earlier this week, The Northern Echo obtained new statistics which showed that 42 vehicles had ploughed through fencing over railway lines across Britain since Selby.

And several of those incidents are understood to have occurred in the North-East and North Yorkshire - leading to renewed backing for the Echo's Scandal of the Railway Bridges campaign.

Structural engineer Professor John Knapton, of Newcastle University, who is one of the country's leading experts, said: "It's a truly astonishing number and it just shows that you must have barriers to stop this, you can't just rely on people to drive properly.

"Since this all started, I've had people from all over the country contacting me to say they are worried sick about bridges in their area which are in a bad way."

A Railtrack spokeswoman confirmed that 13 incidents, where vehicles had crashed through barriers over the main line between Berwick and London, had been recorded at the regional headquarters in York since March 1 last year.

North-East travellers were also among those involved in an alarming incident at Wilsford, in Lincolnshire, on August 30, when a van plunged on to the tracks and was struck by a train.

The Echo first exposed the scandalous state of bridge barriers on the East Coast main line in May last year.

The majority of approaches to 50 bridges we investigated were found to have abysmal levels of protection in place, with several having just flimsy wooden fencing.

Prof Knapton added: "It's worth making the point that many of these bridges over the main line were built at its opening, which was 1852, and the internal combustion engine was only developed in 1876.

"So these bridges were never intended for any kind of vehicle, never mind today's high-speed vehicles, and there are still only dilapidated bits of garden fencing protecting many of them."

Meanwhile, it is expected that a report from the Health and Safety Commission, which was ordered by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in the wake of the Selby crash, will be published on February 21.