The 57-year-old victim, identified by La Voz de Galicia newspaper as María Jesús Izquierdo, had been driving the vehicle, a Peugeot Partner van, alone when she came to an open level crossing near the town of Monforte de Lemos.

The crossing has good visibility and trains are restricted to 80 kilometres per hour (50mph) on that stretch of track. But it seems that Izquierdo had the misfortune of her van stalling just when she was crossing the rail line.

Shortly afterwards, the train, with a dozen carriages carrying cement, approached the crossing. The woman ran out of her vehicle as the train driver tried, in vain, to stop.

Unfortunately, sources say that she ran forward, parallel to the track. When the car was smashed into by the train, it shot forward, crushing the woman.    

Emergency services arrived at the scene but Izquierdo was already dead. At 10.30pm on Wednesday a tow truck was brought in to lift way the remains of the woman’s vehicle.

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