A 41-year-old British man lived through the worst half-hour of his life, as he was forced to watch his two young sons staying at the station from the window of a moving train.
Ben Newman He and his family were returning home from Gatwick Airport in England to Hastings on July 28 on a Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) train. On the way, one of their bags got stuck between two seats. While the father was trying to carry the luggage, his two sons, aged four and six, got off the train at Hampden Park station in Eastbourne. BBC writes.
A few moments later, Newman heard the train’s automatic doors close. To his horror, the man noticed that the children were still standing on the sidewalk. Newman began pressing the door opener and emergency button, but to no avail, the doors did not open. The train departed and the children were left alone at the station.
I saw my eldest son shrinking. He didn’t expect the train to start.
The father screamed madly, and an inspector approached him and tried to calm him down and told him that he did not understand why the door did not open when he pressed the emergency signal. Newman believes the train driver deliberately ignored the emergency signal.
Newman got off at the next stop and was taken back to Eastbourne by a worker there. Fortunately, a woman who saw what was happening stayed on the sidewalk with the children until their father returned. Half an hour passed between the doors closing and Newman returning to his children.
GTR deeply regrets the incident and has launched an internal investigation.
