THEY have survived an horrendous rail crash which left some of their fellow passengers dead - but now they face a new challenge. As well as their physical wounds, the 70 passengers injured in the Selby tragedy now carry the mental scars from their ordeal.

And, for many of them, these are scars which will take longer to heal and which will be liable to be reopened, as victims of previous train disasters can testify.

One of the survivors of Wednesday's crash, Virginia Shaw, phoned her husband, Bill, to say she was still alive - because she was concerned about his welfare.

As The Northern Echo reported yesterday, Bill was one of the survivors from an accident at Lockington in July 1986, just a few miles from the latest incident, where a passenger train ploughed into a van on a level crossing. Nine people died and 11 were injured in that accident, near Beverley in East Yorkshire.

"Virginia didn't want me to go through what she went through," says Mr Shaw, of York. "Hearing about the crash from the media and not knowing if I was alive or dead.

"It is such a feeling of dj vu. Every time there is a train crash, I can imagine what it is like because I have been there. I know the despair that people are feeling and I know the time it takes for people to come to terms with what has happened."

Mr Shaw says he still vividly recalls what happened when his train crashed on that day 15 years ago.

"The first thing that happens is that you can't see out of the windows because when the train goes off the track it hits all the gravel - all the muck and dust flies up and the train shudders. I can't ever forget that feeling."

Derek Thompson was travelling back to the North-East by rail from a conference in South Wales, where he was part of a delegation from Easington District Council, when the train crashed at Southall.

Six people were killed in the 1997 tragedy, including the council's tourism development officer, Ged Murphy, and 150 people were injured.

"I have never really got over it," says Mr Thompson, who was council leader at the time.

"This week has been terrible, it has brought back memories every time I put the television on. I have tried to stop looking at it.

"There have been a three or four crashes since Southall and each time it brings it back."

Mr Thompson, 69, suffered fractured vertebrae in his back and neck and is still in pain and, two years after the crash, decided to step down from his council position.

"I came out of hospital and went for psychiatric treatment for about two years," he says. "They sent me a tape of the crash but I couldn't watch it on my own, but I watched it with my psychiatrist.

"I have never been on a train since. The more I see, the less inclined I feel to go on one.

"My back still hurts but my mind was the most affected, but I'm as right as I'm ever going to be."

The latest tragedy also brought the memories back for Helen Mitchell, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, a survivor of the Paddington rail crash. "When I switched on the news and saw the grave face of the newsreader, my heart sank. I thought, 'Not again'," she says. "It brings back terrible memories of Paddington. Something like this, when you are on the fragile path to recovery, really knocks you back."

Dr John Boddy, from Cardiff, who also survived the Southall crash, believes it is not only physical injuries which will take their toll on survivors.

"I felt isolated in the first few weeks and felt no one really understood what I had gone through," he says. "I went back to work too early and, because of that, I think people believed I was over it. They underestimated the effect it had on me.

"Because I wasn't physically scarred, people felt I had put it behind me. But I'm still living with it. A flashback can hit you from nowhere."

Judith Baron, deputy managing director of the Independent Counselling and Advisory Service (ICAS), the organisation which has already been called in to help victims and relatives, says: "It is normal that the latest crash will bring back memories for victims of previous rail accidents. It is part of being human.

"At the moment, we are concerned about dealing with the initial feelings of guilt and remorse felt by survivors of the latest crash."

Chartered clinical psychologist John Fraise, based in Wakefield, says problems arise for past victims when normal feelings of guilt and shock do not go away, but become stronger.

About 50 per cent of disaster victims suffer from post traumatic stress disorder - a condition which can only be diagnosed three months after the incident. PTSD involves the sufferer reliving the ordeal through flashbacks and feelings of dj vu.

The experience can be triggered by sights and sounds associated with the incident. Although some of these may be obvious, like a sudden noise or the smell of something burning, it may also be a forgotten memory such as a smell of food or an expression on somebody's face.

"Because the memory triggered is so shocking, PTSD sufferers tend to start avoiding situations where it occurs, for example stopping eating certain foods or travelling on trains," he says.

"However, just because the initial stimulus is removed does not mean the flashbacks will stop. Instead, they will start occurring in situations not linked to the disorder, for example in the middle of the night or at work."

Dr Barry Sudworth, senior lecturer in psychology at Teesside University, says one of the crucial first steps is for survivors to come to terms with the fact they have survived.

"The first fact that would concern them is the shock of being in that sort of thing themselves," he says.

"What we need to do is help them identify exactly what did happen and how they were, and not cope with the accident itself. We need to help them with the recovery after it and focusing on their own survival."

He says counsellors work with survivors to help them see how their emotions have changed, to recognise the effect it has had.

"One of the biggest problems for people in any sort of situation like that is you put it to the back of your mind and think, 'If it isn't at the forefront then it isn't affecting me.'

"We need to give them the courage to face the situation. Burying these things in the back of your mind doesn't eradicate them, they're still there and they will affect the way you make future decisions."

He said survivors were taken through the process slowly, only confronting their fears when they were ready, and sometimes they benefited from talking with other survivors.

"It is giving the individual the belief in themselves but also providing evidence from their past history that they have survived. It is a question of adapting to it, even if it felt terrible at the time."