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

Salisbury Council was one of three to vote against the proposal at last month’s Local Government Association general meeting.

Light Regional and Barunga West councils also voted against the motion.

The remaining 65 councils moved to lobby the State and Federal governments to build the bypass for trains travelling from Sydney and Melbourne to Perth and Darwin.

The proposed route would run around the back of the Adelaide Hills, from Murray Bridge to Mallala, 30km north of Salisbury.

Hills and inner-southern councils have been pushing for the change after years of resident complaints about traffic delays and screeching train wheels.

But Salisbury Mayor Gillian Aldridge said the bypass would have a “knock-on effect” for local businesses and future development.

“The City of Salisbury’s economic attraction is stimulated by the infrastructure we have in place, both with rail freight movement and the new Northern Expressway that will open shortly and this is something we would not want to lose,” she said.

“We are the gateway for local and interstate companies to do business and it is this which positions us as one of the state’s most productive regions.”

via Messenger News

The man suffered minor injuries, including abrasions to his arms, chest and back in the near-miss, which happened just before 6.30pm.

Paramedics at the scene said the man had little recollection of what had happened.

East-bound traffic on Park Tce was diverted around the area and Gawler Line trains were cancelled while the incident was investigated.

Police said it appeared the cyclist failed to stop at a stop sign on approach to the train line.

AdelaideNow