Lack of restraints on open-sided carriages have been blamed for a toddler falling from a tramway in the Waitakere ranges in west Auckland.
That is the finding of a Transport Accident Investigation Commission report into the incident, in which the 3-year-old boy was seriously injured.
He fell from the Rain Forest Express,
a narrow-gauge train run by Watercare Services to take passengers into the Waitakere Catchment to see dams that supply Auckland's water.
The boy was travelling with his father and brother on the train in May when he fell from the open-side carriage while the train was travelling about 11km/h through a 559m tunnel.
The boy became wedged between the train and a water pipeline.
His father and another passenger administered first aid and the train driver used his radio to call an ambulance.
The driver used the locomotive and one of the carriages to take the child to the part of the track nearest to the road.
A trainee driver walked the remaining 25 passengers 100 metres out of the tunnel.
The commission said Watercare Services had installed a barrier and door arrangement to minimise the risk of children falling from the carriages.
- NZPA
