POLICE ended weeks of speculation last night by confirming that the Land Rover driver who triggered the Selby rail disaster would face criminal charges.

Gary Hart, whose vehicle careered down an embankment off the M62 and was struck by a GNER train on the East Coast Main Line, has been charged with causing the deaths of ten people by dangerous driving.

The London-bound express, travelling at 125mph, was derailed by the collision but continued further down the line before it ploughed head-on into a goods train laden with coal.

Ten people lost their lives in the tragedy on February 28 this year.

Hart, 36, of Strubby, Lincolnshire, was carrying a Renault car on a trailer when his Land Rover left the carriageway some distance before barriers protecting a rail bridge near the village of Great Heck, North Yorkshire.

Among the crash victims were Teesside University professor of psychology Steve Baldwin, 44, and the GNER train driver John Weddle, a 47-year-old father-of-two, from Throckley, Newcastle.

The wife of one of the victims last night welcomed news of the charge. Lee Taylor, 47, said: "This in something we have been expecting and I believe it will help provide answers to many unanswered questions.

"I do not want to pre-judge anything but I feel that, whatever the outcome, an open court case is the best way for the truth to come out."

Mrs Taylor's husband, William, 42, had been working as a chef for GNER when he died.

The couple, from Newcastle, have two children, Gareth, 17, and Julie, 24 and a grandson Jordan, two.

Mrs Taylor said that after the disaster "everything was a blur".

"I had lost my husband and I didn't really want to know what had happened. But as the weeks have gone by, I have changed and come to realise I want to know exactly what did happen that dreadful morning.

"I want answers as much for my children and grandson as myself. It is only right they know the truth."

An interim report by the Health and Safety Executive earlier this year described the accident as "wholly exceptional" and said it was "beyond the control of the rail industry".

In March, police carried out a reconstruction of the events leading up to the disaster, following the route Mr Hart's vehicle took from Lincolnshire.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Following the rail crash at Great Heck, near Selby, on Wednesday, February 28, Gary Hart, aged 36, from Lincolnshire, has been charged with causing the deaths of ten people by dangerous driving. He has been released on police bail to appear before Selby magistrates on Thursday, May 17."

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