Survivors and relatives of those who died in the Selby train crash wept yesterday as a 999 call was played to a jury.

In the call, Gary Hart desperately asked police for help after his Land Rover plunged on to a railway line.

Relatives held each other for support as the tape, which included graphic noises of the express train approaching with its horn sounding and then smashing into the vehicle, was played to a packed Leeds Crown Court.

Police operator Sarah Pratt, who took the call, wept as she sat in the witness box and listened to the tape.

The 999 call was made by Mr Hart at 6.12am on Wednesday, February 28, on his mobile phone.

During the brief call, Miss Pratt and Mr Hart struggled to pinpoint the exact location of the impending disaster.

At one point she is heard to say "Oh my God" as the GNER express hurtled past Hart who was watching helplessly near the track.

Hart was heard to say: "The train's just gone straight through the front of me Land Rover."

As the call was played to the jury, Mr Hart leant forward, took a short intake of breath and stared ahead.

The jury has heard how Mr Hart's Land Rover and trailer left the M62 motorway near the North Yorkshire village of Great Heck and plunged down the embankment on to the East Coast main line.

Moments later, it was hit by a southbound GNER express train travelling at 117mph which then collided with a fully-laden coal train.

Ten men - six commuters and four railway staff - lost their lives in the disaster.

The prosecution claims Mr Hart fell asleep at the wheel after chatting for five hours to Kristeen Panter, a woman he met on the Internet.

Earlier, the train driver who survived the crash told of the last moments before the high speed collision.

Andrew Hill, 40, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, was the second driver in the Freightliner coal train which was being driven at the time of the disaster by Stephen Dunn, who died.

As the train approached Great Heck, Mr Hill and Mr Dunn watched in horror as the derailed express train sped towards them.

Mr Hill said in the statement: "Within a short space of time I noticed a coach further back from the front of the high speed train jack-knife out towards our side of the tracks. He added: "We were on a collision course. I said 'Steve, get out'.

"I saw the blue livery of the train filling the whole view of the window of our cab. It was within touching distance.

"The last memory I have in the cab was the engine being thrown about. There was no significant sound.

"Then I was choking, unable to breathe. I couldn't see anything. Everything was in blackness."

The court also heard further details of Hart's relationship with Mrs Panter, the woman he befriended through the Internet eight days before the tragedy.

In a statement read to the court, Mrs Panter said she turned to a dating agency on the Internet following the breakdown of her marriage in early February.

The court heard Mr Hart sent her an e-mail on February 20 and following that, correspondence "went back and forth".

Mrs Panter said they swapped mobile numbers and home telephone numbers and "were on the telephone quite a lot to each other".

Mr Hart denies ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow.