Hither Green Train Crash with Robin Gibb

5th of November, 1967 on a Sunday night, Robin and I were on a train to Hastings. Robin and I were in first class in the train because of the money Massachusetts made when it was released. The train started to move fast before it crossed the St Mildred's Road railway bridge. The train felt like it was going 90 MPH. The train began to shake. Robin started panicking, saying, "The train's about to crash!" I had no idea what was going on. He stood up to pull the emergency cord but before he could, the lights went out. The train was still shaking. Then the carriage rolled over and big stretches of railway line came crashing in straight past Robin's face. He was an inch away from being decapitated. He then fell down back in his seat. It felt like we were going over big boulders. Rocks were hitting the compartment. We held on to each other really tight as the train turned over and over. One minute we were in the luggage rack, the next we were on the floor. "Let's get away from the window!!" I yelled to him. We crawled away from the window as glass shattered and fell like Niagara falls.

Finally everything stopped and there was the sound of hissing. Then the blood curdling screams. I was a little panicked and shocked. My heart was pounding. Robin hugged me tight. He was shaking and I could hear his quivering breathing. He had some broken glass in his hair and we both got a few bruises. "Are you okay??" Robin said with a shaky voice. "Yeah, are you?" I said back. "Yeah. I'm okay. Quick, let's save the others!" Robin said quickly. I nodded. I could tell he is shaken up pretty bad. I bet his heart is about to pound right out of his chest! I was shaking a little too but staying calm, at least we are both not seriously injured or killed. Our carriage was sideways so the door was on the top. It was ripped off. It was just the door hole. Robin picked himself up off the floor, finding his trilby that fell off and putting it back on, and climbed up and out of the opening. Then he grabbed me and lifted me out too. We looked around to see silhouettes of the upturned carriages and limp bodies everywhere. The compartment doors in the second carriage were jammed, so we walked along the top of the train to open them.

The first ambulance arrived five minutes after the first emergency calls. Then more came. Fire trucks came on the scene too. A few firemen took a ladder and helped the victims off the top of the train. Then they started pulling people out of the carriage. They pulled 24 people out who had railway lines through their bodies and some were unconscious. And some people had no legs. There was blood everywhere. I looked over to Robin and he was lifting dead people about three times his size out of the compartments and laying them on the lawn. All together, he pulled out six people. The paramedics were giving people anesthetics and amputations on the railway and Robin was then talking to them. It was a horrible sight. Robin must have thought the same thing. All of a sudden, we heard, "Don't let me die." screamed from this young man who was trapped in the twisted wreckage. The screams were eventually trailed off into silence. The young man died. There was nothing anyone could do to save him.

The ambulance came for us and put us in the van. We didn't get to save everybody but we tried. Robin managed to stay calm as we're off to the Hither Green hospital. He was sweating and shaking still. He was pretty much covered in blood from handling the seriously injured and dead people. I held his hand tight. This was too much for him. We drove away from the crash sight not being able to see it anymore. About 9:20 pm. The paramedics made sure we were okay. I didn't know about Robin though. We were quiet and out of breath for the rest of the ride.

Robin has a knack for cheering people up, but tonight wasn't the case. I made sure he was okay until we got to the hospital.

We were escorted to the emergency section of the hospital. We saw people there that had horrible injuries. Missing legs, missing arms. I shuddered. I tried not to look. I felt bad for those people. I could still hear Robin's breathing quiver. I took Robin's right hand and held it.