By Brendan Rees
From distracted pedestrians to a car slamming into a train, alarming footage has emerged of recent close calls on the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines.
While less people are travelling due to Melbourne’s stage-four restrictions, the Transport Department has urged people to be alert and pay attention to crossing signals and signs.
It comes as the Department released shocking video during Rail Safety Week to highlight the risks people take with recent near misses recorded at Dandenong, Beaconsfield and Cardinia Road.
Metro train driver Stephen King knows all too well the “far reaching effects” of peoples risky behaviour on the railway.
“I personally know of colleagues of mine that have been involved in one incident and have been forced to resign from their roles,” he said. “They’ve actually had to move on and find another career.
“The impact of these incidents isn’t just for that one person who is up the front, which is the train driver, but it is to absolutely everybody – family, friends, colleagues and everyone else concerned.”
The Department has documented a number of dangerous acts including people ignoring pedestrian gates to run across the tracks and driving through boom gates when traffic has banked up, which “can have devastating consequences resulting in deaths and serious injuries”.
Near misses and trespassers on the network result in delays to services and can cause significant distress to train and tram drivers and other witnesses.
On average there were 328 trespasser incidents each month on the metropolitan network in the year to July. On the regional network, there is a near miss every four days on average.
Train drivers who are exposed to near miss incidents often require trauma counselling, and in the most extreme circumstances, don’t return to work.
The State Government has committed $10 million to installing fencing at key metropolitan and regional locations across the rail network, to help improve safety and protect lives.
Although Rail Safety Week finished on 21 August, the Department has stressed rail safety was all year round.
“Serious incidents and near misses on our rail network can cost lives and have devastating impacts on drivers and other passengers so please take care when around trains and trams,” a Transport Department spokesperson said.
“Please put away your mobile phones when at rail crossings, only cross at marked crossings and stay behind the yellow line at platforms and tram stops.”
