They are the people who were killed in October 2002 when The Ghan train he was driving ploughed into a car and a bus queued across the busy Park Tce railway crossing at Salisbury.

Although almost eight years have passed, the trauma the Pacific National train driver suffered has not diminished.

“I still think, `I’m home to my wife every night and my kids and there’s someone sitting at home elsewhere missing a partner, or a wife or a young kid’,” the 49-year-old says. “I’ve had Christmases with my family and they’re missing theirs.

“But (psychologists and colleagues) say to you, it’s not your fault, but you still think of things like that.

“I had three months off work after that, and it still haunts me every day.”

Mr Parslow feels compelled to tell his story – and that of other train drivers – in light of last weekend’s accidental death of a two-year-old boy at Nantawarra.

The toddler had wandered away from his family’s rural property and was playing on the tracks at Nantawarra Crossing, near Port Wakefield, just after 1pm on May 22 when he was hit by a freight train unable to stop in time.

Dark memories of the Salisbury tragedy came rushing back for Mr Parslow.

He said he was immediately filled with dread when he heard about the accident.

“We left Adelaide freight terminal at 12.55pm on Saturday and we were going over the Port Wakefield bridge when the emergency call came over the radio,” he says.

“The drivers said they’d hit a young kid and automatically your heart just goes into your mouth.

“I have a 13-month-old grandchild and as soon as they said that, it just hits you.”

Mr Parslow’s story is not isolated: the trauma and grief of fatal accidents reverberate across the industry.

He estimates 20 per cent of drivers he has worked with have been involved in a serious accident at a railway crossing.

He talks about a colleague who accidentally killed a man crossing tracks two years ago. “He still hasn’t told his kids about the accident,” Mr Parslow says.

“We’ve got 48 train drivers at the Adelaide Freight Terminal, a good bunch of blokes, so when that happened on Saturday, there would have been phone calls going around making sure everyone was OK.”

He describes the feeling of helplessness drivers have just before an unavoidable accident.

“In a car, if you see someone, you can try to swerve . . . but it’s the inevitability of what’s going to happen – you’re looking at them and they’re looking at you.

“And what can we do? There is nothing else we can do except wait for it to happen.

“And then you have to deal with the process after it.”

Over his three decades of driving, Mr Parslow has been involved in eight level crossing accidents. The father of two says he still suffers physically – as well as emotionally – from the 2002 Salisbury accident, which also injured 26 people.

“I sit at home at night and my wife says, `Why are you shaking? You’re sitting there shaking like anything’,” he says.”And I’ll be sitting here eating tea; shaking. I don’t think I’m doing it, but I am.

“My nerves are shot.”

The two drivers involved in last weekend’s fatal accident are yet to return to work and Mr Parslow says the men would be suffering emotionally – with grief, sleeplessness and nightmares.

“It affects your life – it affects your family life; it affects your work life,” he says.

But he commends a Pacific National move to implement a trauma response unit, which would help drivers immediately after an accident.

Mr Parslow says he loves his job, but another serious accident would make him consider giving up his 32-year career.”If I have another big one again, that’s it. I’m finished,” he says.

He says despite Government advertising campaigns calling for the public to stay alert around railway lines, too many people – drivers, cyclists and pedestrians – flirt with danger.

“People are still in too much of a hurry and taking too many risks,” he says.

“Drivers are still going across crossings when it’s dangerous; even when the gates are down – they just go around.”

via AdelaideNow

Police said the incident happened on a level crossing on Bagsters Rd at Salisbury North about 11.15pm and that no on had been hurt. They said the train had dragged the vehicle about 800m from the point of impact.

Police said the driver of the old 4WD took a shortcut along a section of disused road.

The vehicle stalled while crossing the train line, as a two-engine freight train headed towards it down the line.

“The driver and his occupant jumped out to safety, and the train collided with the vehicle, pushing it about 800m down the track before coming to a stop,” a police spokeswoman said.

The driver of the train was the only person on board and was not injured.

The 4WD was written off, while the train was only slightly damaged and able to continue its journey.

AdelaideNow

The flooding occured approximately 54 kilometres from the town of Yunta, washing away several sections of track and leaving trains stranded either side.

The Sydney-bound Indian Pacific service from Adelaide was terminated at Yunta where passengers boarded buses believed to be bound for Broken Hill. According to the Great Southern Rail information line, the empty train is due to arrive back in Adelaide at 6:30am this morning.

Freight operator Pacific National has cancelled several services while others left stranded in South Australia are expected to be diverted via Adelaide and Melbourne. SCT Logistics has reportedly cancelled one of their Parkes – Perth services.

It is not known at this stage how long it will take to restore the line.

RailSA

The front locomotive of the train was derailed about 300 kilometres south of Alice Spring on Sunday night when it hit a large bull.

The animal was killed but no passengers were hurt.

The Ghan was due to arrive in Adelaide at about 12:30pm on Monday, but arrived in the early hours of this morning.

ABC News

Senior Sergeant Michael Potts says the south-bound passenger train hit and killed a large bull on the railway line near Rose Hill Station in South Australia last night.

Great Southern Rail originally said the train had hit a camel.

Senior Sergeant Potts says only the locomotive derailed and the railway line was cleared by 4am today.

“The Adelaide-bound train is due into Adelaide around about 0200 hours tomorrow morning, 2am, which puts it about 14 hours behind schedule,” he said.

“There’s no injuries.

“The original locomotive driver I believe is still with the new locomotive unit and still heading down towards Adelaide.”

ABC News