A MAN has described how he had to leave a woman “to die” on a rail crossing as a train approached.

Scaffolder Darren Day said he and a workmate came across a Volkswagen Golf that had stopped on the Sandy Lane crossing on Tuesday afternoon before the barriers came down and the alarm sounded.

The 36-year-old, from Kidlington, said he tried to break the window to get the driver out but he had to get off the line.

He said: “As soon as I heard the train coming I thought she is going to die if I don’t help her.”

But he said: “The train was about 100ft away and I had to leave for my own safety. It was leaving another human being to die in my eyes.”

Mr Day said he could only watch as the train smashed into the car, forcing it to roll about four times and end up upside down.

Cowley man Mark Tierney, 29, who arrived on the scene shortly after, said he was surprised the woman survived.

He said: “It was awful. None of us were brave enough to go to the wreckage to see if she was okay.

“That spot is dangerous sometimes anyway but to see the car the way it was, I am surprised she made it.”

The driver, a woman in her 40s from Banbury, was yesterday being held under the Mental Health Act as police investigated the cause of the crash.

British Transport Police (BTP) officers were waiting to speak to her about the incident.

The woman had to be cut from her car after the Bournemouth to Manchester train hit it at about 4.40pm, and she was taken to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Network Rail yesterday said early signs showed the crossing, which has a history of malfunctions, was working properly at the time of the crash.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) is verifying this is correct.

Network Rail spokeswoman Dayle Sellars said: “Network Rail is cooperating fully with RAIB in the investigation. Early indications are that the crossing was working correctly at the time of the incident.”

The Oxford Mail reported earlier this year that the crossing malfunctioned 21 times in 2012.

Kidlington resident Shirley Jarvis, 69, said she saw a van almost get trapped on the line earlier this month. She said a train passed and the barriers went up only to come down a few seconds later and another train pass through. She said: “He was halfway over before the lights started flashing and the barrier came down.”

Mrs Jarvis, of High Street, said she would no longer be driving over the crossing after the latest incident. She said: “Anybody local will be very wary about using it now.”

Trains between Oxford and Banbury were running as expected yesterday. All services had been suspended until 10pm on Tuesday.

In January, 85-year-old Banbury man Thomas Pizzey died when the car he was in was hit by a freight train on the same crossing.