A LEVEL-CROSSING near Droitwich Spa was the scene of the horrific death smash involving a woman driver and a high-speed train.

The woman was killed at 6.46pm on Monday after her blue Volkswagen Golf collided with a mail train travelling through Dunhampstead.

Before it could stop, the train shunted the wreckage nearly two miles along the Birmingham to Cheltenham line.

Paramedics pronounced the motorist dead at the scene.

Network Rail, responsible for the track and un-manned crossing, has checked the barrier equipment and says it was in working order.

An investigation by the British Transport Police has now begun to establish why the car was on the tracks.

Shocked staff and customers at the Fir Tree Inn, Trench Lane, were among the first on the scene.

Licensee Suzanne Kearny was inside her pub, telling Australian tourists how the barriers worked when the smash happened at 6.45pm.

Bang

"I said you're in luck, the barrier lights are flashing, there's a train coming. Then we heard a big bang but it was not until fire engines arrived that we realised something had happened."

Suzanne was unsure whether the barriers were up or down when the Royal Mail train - believed to be travelling south between Plymouth and Gateshead- roared through the small hamlet.

Two crews from Droitwich Fire Station were scrambled to the scene, along with crews from Worcester and Stourport's off-road team. Hereford and Worcester Fire Brigade spokesman Alec Mackie said firefighters spent five hours clearing the track.

"The train disintegrated the car and stopped about two miles away from the crossing," he told the Advertiser.

"Part of the vehicle was caught under the train and we had the task of removing it and cutting the woman's body from the car. We did not know how many people had been travelling in the vehicle, so we made a thorough search of the track, on both sides."