Here in South Australia, at Mawson Lakes interchange, a 17-year-old youth narrowly escaped with his life - receiving only a broken ankle - when crossing the railway tracks. He had jumped onto the train tracks to cross over to the other platform.
Jumping down next to a stationary train, he didn't see the other one coming on the second train line. He only just made it to the platform in time, leaving SA police to release the CCTV camera footage to the public with a dire warning: don't cross the tracks!
Chief Inspector Rob Williams, Officer in Charge of SAPOL's Transit Services (Police), reminds everyone that rail tracks are very dangerous places.
"Trains travel at up to 90km/h and it is often difficult to hear an oncoming train."
"Please, don't put your life and others at risk to save a bit of time by crossing the tracks at other places."
CCTV camera footage, which is available at http://www.youtube.com/user/SAPoliceNews, can be seen below:
What's with the mask? Did he just pull off a heist? He's kind of dressed like a cat burglar.
Community Admin
It's such low quality I can barely see his face! :) Is it possible he's not wearing a mask, but they blurred his face to hide his identity?
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
How could he possibly jump on to the train tracks without first checking for trains??? That's moronic behaviour.
I mean, if you used your eyes, you would either:
If you used your ears, you would either:
In addition, if you perform such risky behaviour, must make haste, in case a train does come (which, even if it did, you would have at least 7 seconds to get out of danger).
Because a train DID come, why wouldn't you stay on the opposite train track and wait until the train passed, instead of risking your life (and he was so extremely extremely extremely close to death).
In my opinion, this wasn't an accident. Obviously, the kid was TRYING to risk his life for some sort of thrill. Or he has a severe mental disability. As it is illegal to cross train tracks in that manner, he should have received a fine.
As far as I know we don't have that rule here in SA. I've only ever heard them blow their horn when approaching a road, but not a station (though of course most of the time the train station is alongside a road anyway). Mawson Lakes interchange is an example of a train station that is below the road, therefore trains don't need to blow the horn (I think).
There is a dedicated bridge just for vehicle traffic to drive over the railway, and to cross the tracks legally as a pedestrian you need to climb stairs up to road level, then walk a bit and climb down stairs again down to the train station level. I'm not saying the guy did the right thing, but ML interchange would take the longest for a pedestrian to get from one side of the track to the other side (about 1-2 minutes, walking, I'd guess). Every other station has a walkway straight across the tracks itself with automated safety gates.
As for headlights, I've seen trains with those on during the day. I assume that must be a law as well then.
Agreed. As the police know his age and which suburb he is from, I assume they know his identity and he probably did get a fine. Bit difficult for him to leave the scene with a broken ankle anyway :)
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
As I just noticed that I didn't have an image for this blog entry, I've uploaded one that shows the roadway / passenger walkway above the railway line, to give a bit of perspective for anyone that hasn't seen this station before.
Mawson Lakes train station, South Australia
Source: JohnnysPages.com
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Oh it's not that wide at all… I could run across those tracks in less than 10 seconds.
Run across… or over? xD
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Across the tracks of course!
Post preview:
Close preview