THE widow of a train driver killed in the Selby rail disaster has spoken of her sorrow for the man at the centre of the police investigation.

But Mary Dunn said she could never face meeting him in person.

Mrs Dunn's husband, Stephen, 39, died when the freightliner coal train he was driving was hit by a high-speed passenger service train on February 28. Ten people died and more than 70 were injured.

In the 6.14am crash, described as "wholly exceptional" in an official interim report, the passenger train was derailed after hitting a Land Rover, which had earlier careered off the road, down an embankment and on to the line.

Mr Dunn had no time to avoid the London-bound GNER express and was killed on impact.

Speaking of Gary Hart, 36, whose Land Rover led to the disaster, she said: "I feel very sorry for him. He would have watched it unfold in slow motion while he was on the phone.

"I don't blame him for Steve's death. I wouldn't wish him any harm, but I don't want to come face to face with him.

"He is going to suffer for the rest of his life. His life will never be his own again. I am confident in the legal system and the inquiry.

"If there is any fault, it will be dealt with accordingly. All I want is honesty from everyone involved," said the mother-of-two, from Brayton, North Yorkshire.

Mr Hart, from the Lincolnshire village of Strubby, was on his way to work in Wigan and was carrying a Renault car on his trailer, attached to his Land Rover, for delivery to a friend.

A police investigation is looking at "the manner in which the vehicle was driven, the health and condition of the driver, the condition of the vehicle and the extent to which the weather may have been a contributory factor to the Land Rover leaving the M62 carriageway".