The steam train driver who averted a crash after spotting a car on the railway line ahead of him has described the tragedy as "very sad".

Driver Peter Duncalfe halted his train just yards from where a car had fallen 30 feet from a road on to a railway line in Dorset.

The 63-year-old driver of the car, from Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, was killed in the accident and police think his companion, a woman, could have been trapped in the blue Peugeot 309 for up to eight hours.

She was treated after being taken to hospital in an air ambulance.

Mr Duncalfe said his first thought was that joy riders may have pushed the car on to the track.

The skill of the air ambulance helicopter pilot who took the injured woman to hospital was incredible and unbelievable

Peter Duncalfe, train driver

He said: "As a train driver you are always looking ahead along the line for something unusual and out of the ordinary."

When he saw the wreckage of the car he stopped the train 300 yards short of the bridge.

He said the locomotive fireman and the guard went to see if they could help anyone in the car, as he dialled 999 on his mobile phone.

Mr Duncalfe praised the speed and skill of the emergency services.

"The paramedic car was on the scene within three to four minutes and the fire brigade from Swanage was there almost instantly after that," he said.

The woman passenger was airlifted to hospital.

"The skill of the air ambulance helicopter pilot who took the injured woman to hospital was incredible and unbelievable," he said.

"It was awesome.

Firemen used hydraulic cutting equipment on the car

"First, the helicopter landed on the rails while a member of the crew got out and then the pilot took off and landed on a small level area of grass between the rail and where the railway embankment side starts to drop. It was amazing," Mr Duncalfe said.

After the accident the operators of Swanage Railway repeated their calls for crash barriers to be put on the road after a motorcyclist left the carriageway at the same spot three years ago.

The chairman of the railway, Bill Trite, said: "It is somewhat shutting the stable door after the proverbial horse has bolted.

"If we had not been running trains I do not know how long it would have been before that unfortunate couple were found.

"The car had got itself under the bridge in such a position that dozens and dozens of motorists had passed by during the morning and did not see it."