Croydon tram crash survivor tells of horrifying scene of death and severed limbs moments after the accident

A SURVIVOR of the Croydon tram disaster told last night how he knew his friend had died when he saw one of his workboots in the wreckage.

The tram is thought to have been doing 50mph before it derailed on a sharp bend with a 12mph limit, sources said.

Seven passengers — six men and a woman — were killed with more than 50 injured.

It is believed some have had limbs amputated after Wednesday morning’s crash.

Crystal Palace fan Dane Chinnery, 19, was yesterday the first victim to be named.

Former schoolpal Tom Dale, 20, was travelling with him to work — and expressed fears at the tram’s speed even before it took the fateful bend in torrential rain.

Street cleaner Tom — who is in remission from leukaemia — said: “After we set off, I turned to some of the other passengers around Dane and said, ‘The tram’s a bit quicker this morning considering the weather’. It was tipping down.

“Dane was by the doors and I was about four steps away. We came out of the tunnel and we were flying along doing 40-50mph.

“I’d never known it go as fast as we approached that sharp bend. I heard no brakes.

“I knew the tram was going to go. I just grabbed on to the railing as hard as I could.

“The window smashed when the tram went on its side and I could feel my left hand scraping on the gravel. Then everything went black ­— I passed out.

“I don’t know how long I was out for, but when I came around, people were screaming and crying.

“A young lady was mumbling that her husband was beneath the tram.

“I tried to pull myself up but my feet had gone through the window and were trapped.

“I could see the body of a man in his 40s, his legs and chest were motionless — I knew he’d died.

“I started to panic and became terrified that another tram was about to run into us. I was thinking, ‘This is it, I’m gone’.”

He then looked around in vain for his mate, who he starred alongside in school plays including Bugsy Malone — but all he saw was a boot where he had been sitting.

Tom recalled: “I asked someone if they had seen the guy in the green hi-viz who had been sitting there, meaning Dane. The reply came back that no one had.

“All I could see was one of his workboots on the seats. I’d seen him wearing them earlier.

“Dane must have been next to my feet underneath the tram, obviously dead.”

Tom, who beat childhood cancer five years ago, was ferried to hospital by his father and treated for bruising — but remarkably had no broken bones.

He said: “It is a miracle I am here.”

Tributes yesterday poured in for “beautiful” teenager Dane, who was on his way to work at Croydon-based flood response firm Hydro Cleansing Ltd.

One pal said: “Dane is the funniest boy I’ve ever met in my life.

“If anyone ever needed anything he’d be there doing all he can to help.”

Family friend Barbara Dumbleton said Dane, from New Addington, South London, was “a beautiful lad who always had a smile on his face… he was absolutely lovely”.

His heartbroken family visited the crash scene yesterday at Sandilands, in Croydon, South London, but were too upset to speak.

Dane’s former headteacher Martin Giles said staff and students at Meridian High in New Addington were “heartbroken” — with at least three former pupils injured.

The driver of the tram, which was bound for Wimbledon from New Addington, has told officers he blacked out shortly after 6am.

The two-carriage tram has a “deadman’s handle” safety mechanism, which when released applies the brakes and sounds an alarm.

Tram safety expert Ian Rowe said: “If you were to lose consciousness and your hand comes off it, then within a short time, usually three seconds, the tram would say, ‘Something is wrong here’.”

But survivors described hearing no alarm and are convinced the tram did not slow at all on a section of track known for speeding.

A source said yesterday: “The investigators will have to look at this, and to the track layout on this particular stretch.

“There have been reports of a similar incident in the same section in the past week.”

Car wash worker Eric Tutu, 50, from Thornton Heath, South London, suffered a blood clot on his lung after the crash.

He told yesterday of the chaos and panic in the aftermath, as trapped passengers tried desperately to open the doors.

He recalled: “There was a loud bang and then a blackout.

“All I could hear was screaming. When the tram flipped, a man who was on the other side was thrown on to me and was crushing my arms, legs, wrist and lungs.

“He had a cut on his forehead and his blood was dripping into my ear. Me and some other passengers then tried to open the doors.

“We were trying to push them up but they’re electric so we couldn’t. We were trapped. I then heard a voice calling from near where the driver had been sitting.

“It was someone from the emergency services. They couldn’t get the doors open either so they smashed the windscreen.

“They were directing us through, but I saw a woman unconscious and I wasn’t sure if she was alive or not.

“I tried to carry her out but she was under some metal and I couldn’t lift it, it was too heavy, so I had to leave her.

“Me, two women and another man climbed through, and I told the emergency services about the woman trapped.”

Hospital sources said some survivors have had limbs amputated while another had a collapsed lung.

A spokesperson for St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London, said: “Three patients who were seriously injured in the tram incident underwent surgery.

“All three left theatre yesterday, and are continuing to be looked after by our surgical and medical teams.”

A British Transport Police spokesperson said: “The investigation is ongoing. We are not able to confirm details of the speed the tram was travelling. This forms part of our ongoing investigation.”