The train is nearly always virtually undamaged in a collision with a car, van or similar, and the train driver is usually high enough to be out of harm's way. One obvious exception was Great Heck, where I think the nose-down angle of the Land Rover on the track meant that the train rode up over the solid engine block. Even there the train would have been little damaged though derailed, if not for the tragic coincidence of being diverted by a crossover into the path of a train in the other direction.
However various incidents over the years show that a collision with a HGV presents a much greater risk to the train and people on board it.
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that must be the un-luckiest car driver in the uk, getting ****ted by a train on that line!
Crossing collisions seem to be a problem even on lines with very sparse train services (see Halkirk for example). Possibly road drivers assume, consciously or otherwise, that there are so few trains that there can't possibly be one approaching.
