A train driver almost ploughed into an oncoming train after vandals sneaked through a broken fence and smashed a red light.
South Central train driver Jason Funnell, 34, was hailed a hero after narrowly averting a major crash at Willingdon Junction, near Eastbourne.
Mr Funnell, from Newhaven, who was driving from Eastbourne to Hastings, said: "I just had a feeling in my mind there was something not quite right when I came round the corner and there was no red light, so I slowed down.
"It did not really sink in until later how dangerous that could have been. A quarter of a mile down the track, a train from London would have been coming through.
"If I had not thought to stop, we would have ploughed into one another."
John Herriott, South Central's driver standards manager for Brighton, said: "This was a very serious incident, which could have had the worst possible consequences but for Jason. He's one of my top men."
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