Fact #76270
When:
Short story:
Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees is lucky to escape the disastrous Hither Green Train crash in London, England, UK, Europe, without injury. Fifty other passengers are killed.Full article:
Robin Gibb : Massachussetts was out. I was about sixteen, and I was with my girlfriend, Molly, who later became my first wife, and she lived in Hastings with her parents. We’d gone down there for the weekend and I had to get back to London for a meeting with Robert Stigwood. It was raining. We missed the early train and got the 8.30. As we approached Charing Cross, there was an uplift where the train accelerated through Lewisham.
I was sitting in one of those old-fashioned first class carriages, where you can seat about eight people, and a corridor along the side. Molly was reading a book. I heard this noise like rocks being thrown at the side of the carriage, and there was a violent shaking, and I said, ‘This train’s going to crash.’
And Molly said, ‘Don’t be silly, I’ve done this trip lots of times. We always speed up here.’ And just as she said this, the lights all went out, and the train lurched, and a huge chunk of railway line shot up into the carriage right past my face. Two inches more and I’d have been dead. As it was my face was cut, and there were showers of glass flying about. Horrific noise. The whole carriage had flipped over on its side, and there was hissing and screaming, and we were looking up at the broken windows, because that was our only way out.
I managed to poke my head out, and I saw that there were silhouettes of other carriages, upside down and twisted around. I had to get up and pull myself through, and then lift Molly up beside me. Then we were walking along on top of the side of the train. We were able to pull some other people out. Molly was bruised and battered. I had glass in my mouth, in my eyes, in my hair for weeks after that. There were 80 or 90 people killed that night. It was one of the worst train crashes in British history.
That experience changed me in that it made me realise how unpredictable life is, and how you could be dead at any minute and you should really seize every moment and enjoy each day as it comes. And don’t put things off. It wasn’t a spiritual experience at all. I was just a very lucky guy.
It made me more accountable for myself, and it made me have more respect for other people.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, on 9 February 2001 at Middle Ear Studio, Miami, Florida, for Mojo Magazine)
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I was sitting in one of those old-fashioned first class carriages, where you can seat about eight people, and a corridor along the side. Molly was reading a book. I heard this noise like rocks being thrown at the side of the carriage, and there was a violent shaking, and I said, ‘This train’s going to crash.’
And Molly said, ‘Don’t be silly, I’ve done this trip lots of times. We always speed up here.’ And just as she said this, the lights all went out, and the train lurched, and a huge chunk of railway line shot up into the carriage right past my face. Two inches more and I’d have been dead. As it was my face was cut, and there were showers of glass flying about. Horrific noise. The whole carriage had flipped over on its side, and there was hissing and screaming, and we were looking up at the broken windows, because that was our only way out.
I managed to poke my head out, and I saw that there were silhouettes of other carriages, upside down and twisted around. I had to get up and pull myself through, and then lift Molly up beside me. Then we were walking along on top of the side of the train. We were able to pull some other people out. Molly was bruised and battered. I had glass in my mouth, in my eyes, in my hair for weeks after that. There were 80 or 90 people killed that night. It was one of the worst train crashes in British history.
That experience changed me in that it made me realise how unpredictable life is, and how you could be dead at any minute and you should really seize every moment and enjoy each day as it comes. And don’t put things off. It wasn’t a spiritual experience at all. I was just a very lucky guy.
It made me more accountable for myself, and it made me have more respect for other people.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black, on 9 February 2001 at Middle Ear Studio, Miami, Florida, for Mojo Magazine)