A RUNAWAY car came perilously close to disaster after almost plunging onto the railway track in Haworth.

Station foreman David Petyt said ‘God was on everyone’s side’ that day as the line has regular passenger trains running.

Police were called soon after 2pm on Sunday after the black Audi TT Quattro wedged itself into trees overlooking the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway station and next to the wooden footbridge.

Hundreds of pedestrians use the footbridge daily in the busy tourist honeypot with many of those visitors heading to the volunteer-run heritage railway to see the trains.

Mr Petyt said: “No one is absolutely sure what happened but we believe there was no one in the car. We suspect the handbrake slipped or it was not properly put on and and it rolled down from the bottom of Butt Lane and the junction of Belle Isle Road.

“As it is, it demolished a wooden fence next to the footbridge and came to rest in a dip. It was only about 10 feet from the edge and very close to where people walk.”

Mr Petyt said there was a drop to the line from the top of the bank and that it was fortunate the car was not going at speed when it approached the bridge.

“If it had been going any faster it could easily have gone through a retaining wall and plunged down onto the track but somehow just managed to veer off slightly to the left and onto a bit of spare ground where it ground to a halt.

“There are around four trains an hour on that line and the next train was only three or four minutes away. Passengers were waiting on the station for it.

“It would have been terrible if it had crashed into one of the engines. I think God was on everyone’s side because I’ve been told the car was drivable when it was removed and no one had been injured when it happened.

“The RAC came along at around 5.30pm to remove it.

“I don’t know who the owner was, whether he lives locally or was a visitor, but he was lucky his car was not badly damaged.

The police confirmed they had been called out to the incident on Sunday near the railway station.

A police spokesman said: “The car was on its side and nobody was believed to be in it. It seemed to be wedged.

“We attended and put a ‘police aware’ sticker on the car. There was no suggestion it was causing an obstruction.”

The station at Haworth receives thousands of visitors each year but was particularly busy at the beginning of April when the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway hosted the newly restored Flying Scotsman engine.

It hauled Pullman and passenger coaches between Haworth, Oakworth and Keighley, stopping at each of the stations.

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