Kieran Chisnall heard a ute 'roaring down the road' towards the level crossing, and knew the driver wasn’t going to stop.
An 80-tonne heritage train came within moments of slamming into the driver’s side of a ute in Taranaki, with the close call at a level crossing caught on camera by a trainspotter.
The narrow miss on Sunday afternoon happened as a Waitara Railway Preservation Society train returned empty to itsWaitara depot after a sightseeing tour.
Video shows the ute barrelling through the stop-sign controlled level crossing on Waitara Rd moments before the locomotive, which had sounded its horn several seconds earlier, passed through.
“I heard this ute roaring from way down the road,” said Kieran Chisnall, who filmed the near-disaster just before the train reached its depot.
“It was going like a bat out of hell and I just thought, ‘That’s not gonna stop’.”
As he kept his camera on the train, Chisnall turned his head to see the vehicle “skid around another ute”, whose driver had just stopped their plans to pull on to Waitara Rd.
Video footage shows the ute driver passing through a level crossing just in front of a heritage train from the Waitara Railway Preservation Society on Sunday. The ute driver was later fined, police say. Photo / Screengrab from video / Kieran Chisnall
Chisnall’s camera then followed the ute across the railway line seconds before the approaching train.
The Havelock North rail enthusiast wasn’t sure if the ute driver was aware of the train before that moment – not that it would’ve mattered, he said.
“He was going that fast he wouldn’t have been able to stop even if he wanted to.”
Chisnall said he’d seen many close calls at level crossings “but that would definitely be the closest”.
Havelock North's Kieran Chisnall has been a bagpiper and beekeeper since he was 8 years old. He's also a rail enthusiast and captured footage of a near collision between a ute and a heritage train in Waitara on Sunday. File photo / Paul Taylor
He immediately called police and gave them the ute’s registration number.
The footage was also shared widely across social media, sparking hundreds of comments, reactions and shares.
The driver had since been found, fined $150 and given 20 demerit points for failing to stop at a railway stop sign, a police spokeswoman said.
“Police would like to remind motorists that when approaching a railway crossing that is not controlled by barrier arms, you must slow down and prepare to stop for oncoming trains.
“Trains can’t swerve or stop on a dime, so please keep yourself and others safe by following the road rules and staying vigilant around railway crossings.”
Waitara Railway Preservation Society operations manager Derek Baker wasn’t on board at the time but told the Herald he’d spoken to the locomotive driver.
“‘Another temporary citizen’, that was his comment about the [ute] driver.”
Society members were used to the “blasé attitude” of motorists to safety at the eight level crossings on the Waitara-Lepperton line, Baker said.
None of those crossings have bells, lights or barrier arms but all have stop signs and other warnings, which he believed were adequate for drivers.
The 15km return tourist line is operated for the public by the volunteer-run society on the former Waitara branch line twice a month, but trains could and did run at any time for charters.
The society bought the line off KiwiRail in 1999 and has sole use of it.
“The difficulty we have is people have this perception we only run on the weekend. There’s a blasé attitude, and that’s our Achilles heel.
“As much as we hang on the horn and make a lot of noise, some people just don’t hear it … and the visibility isn’t great.”
Sunday’s incident was “one of the nearer misses” but also not unusual, Baker said.
He estimated around 95% of motorists slow down and stop at the crossings, another 4% drive through unaware and 1% see the train but “decide to go anyway”.
“And that’s really scary.”
The Waitara Railway Preservation Society runs a heritage train from Waitara to Lepperton on the former Waitara branch line in Taranaki. Photo / Derek Baker
Drivers on the heritage train, which depicts a 1930s rail travel experience, are trained to approach every crossing as if they would need to stop, Baker said.
That meant reducing speed to 10km/h, but it still took 10-15m to bring the locomotive and two carriages – total weight about 80 tonnes – to a stop.
In 22 years of operation there’d never been a collision between a train and vehicle, but a light truck had once ended up in a ditch to avoid one. In another incident partially captured on camera, a car passed in front of the train after driving around a stopped truck.
“Amongst us [society members] we say, ‘it’s an accident waiting to happen’.
“The scary thing about [Sunday’s near miss] is he didn’t even register the possibility of a train. And that’s all we ask – that instead of people thinking it won’t happen to them, they think it could happen to them.”
KiwiRail research released last month showed 47% of all Kiwi motorists make the split-second decision to dart out at level crossings, ignoring stop or give way signs.
Earlier research from TrackSAFE Foundation NZ, a not-for-profit that raises awareness about safety around tracks and trains, found almost three-quarters of drivers involved in fatal and injury crashes at level crossings were fully licensed.
The data, based on the New Zealand Transport Agency’s crash analysis system figures, also found 72% were male, with men aged 40-59 the most likely to be involved in level crossing collisions.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
