Telford steam railway chairman's legs crushed in accident

The chairman of Telford Steam Railway was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after his legs were crushed by a piece of railway track.

Paul Hughes, chairman of Telford Steam Railway, was with five volunteers working at the heritage site on Saturday when a piece of the track fell from the station's hand-powered crane and landed on his legs.

Mr Hughes was comforted by colleagues, including his wife, before being airlifted to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire for emergency surgery.

Rob Palmer, Telford Steam Railway secretary and director, said: "A total of five staff were working. They were bringing up materials for a new station, lots of ironmongery.

"They were carrying a line of rail using the railway's hand crane when something went awry. There was no failure of any mechanical part.

"Paul Hughes suffered injuries to his legs. He had an operation on Saturday evening and he is due to have another today.

"We will have an internal report. We won't be doing any more work for a while."

The Office of Rail Regulation, the independent safety and economic regulator for Britain's railways, confirmed it was investigating the incident and officials were at the site in Bridge Road, Horsehay, today.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "The incident happened on Saturday at about 3.45pm. The initial call was that a male in his 30s had been hit by metal rail.

"He was taken by the Cosford air ambulance to the University Hospital in North Staffordshire with serious leg injuries."

Telford Steam Railway bosses say the site will be shut this weekend and no decision has been made when it will reopen to the public as investigations are ongoing.