LONDON, July 11: A London Underground train driver caught up in the terror bombings said on Monday he was ‘the luckiest man alive’ after surviving the attacks. Jeff Porter was driving a train into Edgware Road station as one of the bombs exploded, wrecking the oncoming train passing centimetres from his own and killing seven people. The 46-year-old reckoned if the blast had gone off a second later, his vehicle would have been hit and several more killed.
The driver recounted the terrifying moment he witnessed the explosion.
“I was coming into Edgware Road station, as I do every morning,” he told BBC television.
“There was a train at the platform in front of me, coming the other way.
“As the driver’s cab was just passing mine I saw a bright yellow light on the train on the other side.
“It was like it happened in slow motion in my mind. As the other train passed me my windscreen shattered.
“There was smoke and dust everywhere. The tunnel lights came on.
“I was confused and just wondered what had happened. I didn’t hear a bang or a boom.”
Porter said he began evacuating the packed train through the driver’s cab.
The driver’s face and silver hair were black with grime and smoke as he led his passengers to safety.
A commuter recorded the evacuation on his mobile phone camera and Porter can be heard telling frightened passengers to “stay calm” as he urged them from the carriages.
“The training kicked in straight away to know what to do to get the train evacuated and to look after these 1,000 passengers who were on the train and get them to safety,” Porter said.
“I must be the luckiest man alive. If it had been a second later that the explosion happened, I wouldn’t be here speaking to you.
“We were so lucky the blast happened when it did and not one to 10 seconds afterwards because the casualty numbers would have been doubled.
“If it was a second later, all the debris that was on the track in front of my train would have been blown into the carriage and the casualty list would have been twice as heavy.” —AFP
