Girl hit in earlier scenic train accident

By SCOTT MacLEOD

A scenic train that badly hurt a four-year-old boy in the Waitakere Ranges also injured children in a crash five months ago.

The boy was last night in a fair and stable condition in the Starship children's hospital intensive-care ward after falling from the Rainforest Express train inside a long tunnel at midday on Saturday.

The little diesel train and its open-sided carriages are run by Watercare Services. Health and safety manager Mike Wilson said yesterday that Saturday's accident was the train's worst since it started operating four years ago. The second-worst was "a bruised leg".

But 8-year-old Rebecca Burridge of Remuera felt her injury was more serious than a bruise.

Rebecca was on a school trip with Victoria Avenue Primary School classmates last December 13 when the driver unhitched one of the carriages holding their lunches.

Rebecca said the driver took the train away to turn it around. But when Rebecca and her classmates went to the carriage to grab their lunch, they suddenly saw the train reversing towards them.

The train hit the carriage and shunted it into Rebecca and about two other children.

A parent who was on the trip, Sarah Hallwright, said Rebecca's leg was "squashed" by one of the carriage wheels. "It looked worse than it ended up being," she said.

"There was an amazing amount of bruising, and the driver was so blase about the whole thing."

Rebecca's mother, Debbie, said her daughter screamed herself hoarse. She spent a week on crutches but the injuries had since healed.

Mrs Burridge said the safety standards were not good enough. Mrs Hallwright said both accidents seemed to be mostly bad luck, but she still felt the train trip was unsafe for children.

"The windows should not be open. I wouldn't head there on a class trip again."

The Land Transport Safety Authority has records of Rebecca's accident. An authority spokesman, Andy Knackstedt, said Watercare Services later pledged to "secure" any wagons that were unhitched from the train and improve safety instructions given to passengers.

In Saturday's accident, the boy fell from the train's front carriage while it was passing through a 560m tunnel.

It is believed he was wedged between the side of the carriage and a pipe running alongside the railway line.

A carriage was derailed in the accident, possibly by his body.

Watercare's Mr Wilson said the train's safety was audited every year, and a report sent to the LTSA. The train was built to safety standards approved by the LTSA.

Mr Wilson said Watercare and its workers were devastated.

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission was probing the accident, and the train service would cease until Watercare had finished its own investigation.

The Rainforest Express has a top speed of 13km/h and uses light carriages about 1.5m high.