A man has been cleared of causing a train crash as he drove a van and horsebox over a level crossing.

George Ripley had his grandson in the van with him when the crash happened on an unmanned farm crossing.

Mr Ripley told The Argus yesterday: "I thought I had killed him when the train hit us."

A court heard how the 10.22 service from Hastings to Eastbourne ploughed into the van and trailer as Mr Ripley took his grandson, also George, to feed the family's horses.

He told police a trackside phone by the Winkney Farm crossing, at Willngdon junction, was not working and he could not call the signal box at Hampden Park to get permission to cross the main line.

Mr Ripley, 46, decided to continue because their three horses in the field on the other side of the track needed feeding.

Mr Ripley, of Pelham Close, Westham, near Pevensey, said he checked the track to see if a train was coming and it was clear.

He drove to the edge of the line and then checked his mirror to make sure the horsebox could make it through the gates.

He said: "I looked back and the train was there. I accelerated across the line to get the van clear."

Train driver John Cooper told Hove Crown Court he had sounded his horn and slammed on the emergency brakes after seeing the van and horsebox in front of him.

He said the train was travelling at 40mph and he was unable to avoid a collision with the horsebox, which was completely across his set of tracks.

The horsebox was ripped away from the van and shunted more than 100 meters up the track by the impact.

The court heard there were no horses in it at the time and nobody on the train was injured.

Police and defence crash investigators both agreed that evidence at the scene confirmed both vehicles were moving when the train hit them in October 2003.

The jury was shown photographs of tyre marks left by the van as Mr Ripley desperately tried to move it out of the way.

John Martin, who rented the field to the Ripley family, said phones at the crossing did not work when it was damp or raining.

He said he had reported the phone as faulty to Network Rail two months before the crash.

Mr Martin told the jury: "It was an accident waiting to happen."

After hearing legal submissions, Judge Austin Isaard-Davies ruled it would be unsafe to ask the jury to continue hearing the case.

He directed they should return not guilty verdicts on charges of obstructing the railway and endangering the safety of passengers.

Mr Ripley told The Argus: "I hold my hands up because this accident was my fault. My grandson was five at the time and I would not have put his life in danger deliberately.

"He hit his head on the dashboard when the train hit the horsebox and he was semi-conscious. I thought I had killed him."