THE first man on the scene of the Selby rail disaster has achieved national recognition for his bravery.

Greg Cooper, 35, went to the aid of dozens of people in the tragedy which left ten people dead and 70 injured.

His efforts to help those aboard the GNER express train, which collided head-on with a freight train in February last year, have won him a mention in a competition run by That's Life magazine.

The father-of-two, from Carcroft, near Doncaster, who was working at Northern Straw at the time of the accident, heard the noise of the crash and rushed out to find mangled carriages strewn across a field close to his workplace.

Mr Cooper directed the walking wounded to safety and then got into the wrecked carriages, where he tried comforting and reassuring the injured.

"I did not realise how serious it was and did not realise it was a passenger train until I saw people walking out. I did not have time to think about it I just went straight in there," he said.

Outside, he found one man in a nearby field and waited with him for 20 minutes before helping a firefighter carry him to safety.

Mr Cooper said he had needed ten months of counselling to come to terms with the full horror of the crash.

"I had never seen anything like it before and it was not until about two days later that it started sinking in," he said.

"When I was at work there were trains running past and I could not stand it as I was stopping to make sure they went past."