THE driver of a Land Rover which careered on to a railway line causing the train crash which killed 10 people, including Trowbridge-born train driver Stephen Dunn, fell asleep at the wheel, a court heard.

Gary Hart, 37, had spent five hours on the telephone chatting to a woman he had met on the internet just hours before the accident happened, Leeds Crown Court was told.

The jury heard how Hart's Land Rover and trailer left the M62 shortly after 6am on February 28 near the village of Great Heck, North Yorkshire, and plunged down the embankment on to the East Coast mainline.

Moments later it was hit by a southbound GNER express train which then derailed and collided with a fully-laden Freightliner coal train driven by 39-year-old Mr Dunn.

James Goss, QC, prosecuting, said Hart had spent "the great majority of the night, over five hours, on the telephone to a lady he had met on the internet," and must have been aware of his sleepiness and fought it for some time.

Mr Goss told the jury that eight days before the tragedy a woman called Kristeen Panter, who had just separated from her husband, replied to a personal advert on a dating agency website that had been placed there by Hart and the two contacted each other.

He said that on February 27 a day before the tragedy Mr Panter and Hart had developed "a high degree of mutual interest".

The jury was shown graphs highlighting the telephone contact between Hart and Mrs Panter in the run-up to the crash.

"He told the police he left home after 4.30am but no later than 4.40am," said Mr Goss

"He never slept the night before he set off on his journey to Wigan."

Mr Goss said Hart told police he had stopped his journey after about 35 minutes when his nearside wheels left the road after he "misjudged the corner slightly".

The court heard Hart was spotted on a CCTV camera in Louth at 5.02am and made his 999 call to police at 6.12am.

Mr Goss said the distance between the two locations was 63.47 miles and police officers who replicated the journey using similar vehicles had been unable to travel the route in that time.

Mr Goss said it showed Hart must have been pushing it.

Mr Goss said Hart told police on the day of the crash he left the carriageway after hearing a bang.

Hart scrambled up the bank and made the 999 call. He told officers: "I looked around and I saw there's a train coming. I heard it brake and sound its alarm and bang, it hit."

Mr Goss said Hart told officers on a number of occasions he did not need a lot of sleep and he was "buzzing" that day.

The trial continues.