Grieving pupils get new warning

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

Pupils of a Waikato primary school grieving the death on a rail bridge of one of their classmates were warned yesterday not to play on the bridge.

Jayden Nerihana Tepu, 9, was killed when he was hit by a train on the Ngaruawahia rail bridge on Saturday.

Ngaruawahia Primary School principal Maria Hamill said children were told at a school assembly yesterday the details of the accident and warned to keep off the bridge.

She said Jayden's death had been especially hard for the children, who only last year had to cope with the death of another pupil, 6-year-old Matthew McQuoid, who drowned in the Waikato River.

Ms Hamill said Jayden had been at the school for about two years before moving three weeks ago to Taihape with his mother, Michelle, and 5-year-old sister.

He had gone to school there, she said, but had not liked it and was due to re-enrol at the Ngaruawahia school yesterday.

She said Jayden had returned with his mother for the 106th annual regatta at the Turangawaewae Marae and spent the day watching waka races on the river with his friends.

"Jayden was amongst all the kids, sitting there watching the races," she said.

Police said the driver of the south-bound goods train sounded the siren and applied emergency brakes when he saw the boy walking towards the oncoming train about halfway across the bridge.

Constable Craig Bartlett said Jayden turned and ran, but just 14m from the end of the bridge tripped, fell, and was run over by the oncoming locomotive, which took a further 30m to stop.

Mr Bartlett said the train driver was not believed to be at fault.

Tranz Rail spokesman Jeff Weber said the company had made many attempts to keep children off the bridge, including education programmes, radio advertisements, security guards and anti-climbing devices, all to no avail.

"This is a tragedy. I personally feel terrible and everybody here feels terrible.

"You can imagine how the train driver feels, he's in counselling."

He said the company wanted to work with the community to educate local children about the dangers of playing on the bridge rather than prosecuting.

Waikato District Council chief executive Warwick Bennett said there had been many attempts in the past to find ways to keep children off the bridge.

"The police and Tranz Rail have been dealing with it for years and there doesn't seem to be any solution to it.

"If someone can come up with a way of doing it, which Tranz Rail has been working on for a long time, we would be pleased to hear from you."