According to Sky News, the man jumped from his cab moments before the impact, which left 18 people dead.
Despite his leap from the train he did not come away unscathed and police say that he is in a serious condition in hospital and that they are waiting to interview him.
The incident occurred outside the train station at Buizingen, nine miles southwest of Brussels at 8.30am. Both trains were reported to have been travelling slowly. The governor of the region, Mr Lodewijk De Witte, has suggested that one of the two trains had gone through a red light and that this was the cause of the crash. However, National Railways spokesman Jochen Goovaerts said investigators will examine the black boxes of the two trains to try and establish what went wrong. He stated “There are a lot of possible explanations to this tragedy. We don’t want to put the blame where it doesn’t belong.”
Were this incident to have occurred in the England and liability was admitted by the driver for the accident, then his employer could be found vicariously liable for the work related accident (the driver made the mistake while acting in the course of his employment, so his employer has to face the consequences). Employers by law should have an insurance policy in place to cover them in case an accident occurs which causes injury. This policy should covers them against the negligent actions of their employees or if their employee has been injured due to an incident caused by the employer’s failure to take adequate precautions to safeguard their employee’s welfare.
