TWO men escaped serious injury when their car left the Newton Abbot-Totnes road at Bow Bridge, and plunged 30ft down an embankment on to the main Newton Abbot-Penzance railway line.
The two, believed to be from the Totnes area, managed to crawl out of the badly-damaged red Ford Escort before emergency services arrived at around 7.40pm on Friday.
Police said the men were taken to Torbay Hospital for treatment, but were not believed to be badly hurt. The car, spotted by a passing motorist who raised the alarm, completely blocked the north- bound railway line, but luckily no trains were in the vicinity at the time. A First Great Western spokesman said two high-speed trains were delayed by 48 and 55 minutes and all services were held until the obstruction was cleared.
'We were contacted and our very comprehensive safety procedures were immediately followed,' he said. A spokeswoman for Network Rail said that thanks to its crew of workers it was able to get the down line running again fairly quickly. 'We worked with the police and recovery firms and a crane dragged the car back up the embankment. 'It was understood the car may have hit the bridge before it went on to the railway, and we had to examine it to make sure it was safe.
'Because the down line was not blocked we were able to open that at 9pm with trains restricted to a very slow speed.
'We were able to get the car off the line at 10.20pm but could not re-open the up line until the vehicle was completely clear of the embankment at 10.50pm. It was then restored with a temporary speed limit,' she said.
In all 29 trains were affected. 'This could have been an unfortunate incident but luckily no-one was seriously injured,' she added.