Death crossing due for upgrade

A railway crossing where two people were killed in a train-car collision in the Mid-North yesterday had been earmarked for a safety upgrade.

Wakefield Regional Council documents from June this year indicate that the Australian Rail Track Corporation – which manages the rail line – proposed to upgrade the crossing with boomgates and flashing lights, using a share of $11.2 million in State Government funding for safety upgrades.

The documents did not say when the upgrade was to occur.

The man and woman who died yesterday, believed to be in their mid-twenties, were in a car on the Lochiel-Blyth road when an Adelaide-bound freight train ploughed into the vehicle just before 4pm, killing them instantly.

The train, travelling in excess of 100 km/h, hit the car with such force that the SA-registered, late-model Commodore was split in two, flinging the front half over 10m. The remainder of the car was dragged over 600 metres.

When the train finally screeched to a halt, a car door was still lodged in the train’s front.

Traffic Support Branch Inspector Silvano Codem said the car was demolished by the train.

“The car was severely damaged and the wreckage is strewn a considerable distance,” he said.

“It’s understood that the train driver was sounding the horn prior to the collision. We are unable to say at this stage if the vehicle attempted to stop before the collision.”

Insp Codem said police could not confirm whether the car was stationary before the accident. The fatal crash is the latest in a string of accidents on the rail line, which stretches from Adelaide to Port Augusta and has claimed at least six lives since 2003.

The crossing, near the entrance to the Snowtown-Bumbunga road, had no boomgates or flashing lights.

The tragic accident comes just a day after the end of National Rail Safety Week, which urged motorists to take care around trains, with the slogan: “All level-crossing collisions are avoidable”.

It also follows the March announcement of $13.3 million in Federal Government funding to upgrade safety measures at 34 “high-risk” level crossings across South Australia over the next four years, including crossings in Virginia, Two Wells and Mallala. The funding program was announced in conjunction with a level-crossing safety campaign, launched by former road safety minister Tom Koutsantonis.

The campaign, which concluded in June, included billboards, posters, radio and television advertisements as well as a specially “wrapped” tram in Adelaide and a wrapped Pacific National diesel locomotive, to spread the message in rural South Australia.

Since 2001, 33 people have died in SA level-crossing collisions and another 71 have been seriously injured.

Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union SA/NT branch secretary Ashley Waddell said the safety message was not sinking in.

“We’re running out of ideas. We’ve run education programs, ad campaigns, we’ve beefed up fines, upgraded level crossings. Nothing seems to work,” he said.

“Not even people dying seems to help.

“People just treat level crossings with contempt.”

There are 1140 railway crossings in South Australia.

The State Government has spent $13 million on upgrading crossings around the state since 2003.

The Australian Rail Track Corporation could not be reached for comment.

AdelaideNow