David Davies AM: Inquiry

"It was sheer luck that a disaster was averted. The first thing is to stop it happening again," he said on Saturday.

The incident happened after the civilian lorry collided with an Army Land Rover which had broken down along the A40 at Great Hardwick, south of Abergavenny, just before 1330GMT on Friday.

A freight train - travelling in the opposite direction along the northbound track - is reported to have passed the accident scene minutes after it happened.

The lorry driver was treated for minor injuries after the accident, but no-one else was hurt.

The rail link was closed for several hours but has since re-opened.

Gwent Police says the lorry driver and other parties involved in Friday's accident have been interviewed and investigations are continuing.

The incident has raised further concerns about the need for safety barriers between roads and railways.

"Zero-risk"

Richard Clifton, Director of Railways for the Health and Safety Executive which is trying to find ways of making the many such sites across the UK safer, said it was a continuing concern that vehicles can get onto railway lines.

He said there were 10,000 sites in the UK where the roads either crossed the railway or ran adjacent to it.

It was impossible to create a "zero-risk" situation.

However, in a report to be published by the Health and Safety Commission next month, a working party group had identified some ways of dealing with the problem, said Mr Clifton.

The lorry crashed onto the rail track

These included placing more barriers, improving the road layout and better signs, he said

The crash happened just over a week after Gary Hart was jailed for five years after being found guilty of causing the deaths of 10 people in the Selby rail crash.

Hart's Land Rover plunged off the M62 motorway onto the East Coast main line at Great Heck, near Selby in north Yorkshire, on 28 February last year.

A southbound GNER express train collided with the car before being deflected into the path of a fully-laden northbound coal train.

As details began to emerge of the latest incident in south Wales, Army spokesman David Webb said: "The Land Rover had broken down and the soldiers in it called base in Brecon to ask for assistance.

"While they were waiting a civilian lorry apparently ploughed into the Land Rover and somehow ended up on the railway line.

"All soldiers were OK. Thankfully they had left the vehicle.

"Apparently, it was on an area of road where there is not a hard shoulder."