Torrens Connect

Transcription

"I've experienced a number of near misses. The first time was on the very first train I ever did on my own. That was with a bicycle... The person slowly rode their pushbike across in front of me. I hit the brakes as hard as I could and my heart just about leaped out of my chest and he crossed over just as I came through. And the most memorable one... a young student went out onto the rail as I was coming in and was trapped in a very short space and I went passed him at about 40 kph bringing the train to a stop. There are certain places in the network particularly where we have a number of pedestrian crossings where, although you can see ahead for possibly a kilometre or even more people can be quite hidden either through vegetation or just other infrastructure to one side and they can come out very very shortly ahead of you; they may not be aware that you're coming and you may not be aware that they are there until you're almost on top of them. Trains are... very big, they're very heavy. Ah... they can be very fast and they can take some hundreds of metres to bring to a stop. It's absolutely essential that people do the right thing because your life is at risk; the rail crew is at risk and you run the risk of being a statistic. The impact ah... is profound. I have found it's about ten minutes after the incident where you start to lose coordination and you just cannot function in a normal way. I've had a number of nightmares; and every time I go pass those same spots, it comes back; years later that particular event will just come back; it'll always be there. I just put this plea out to people to be so careful around the track and around moving trains because they're very dangerous to you but to us too."