Re: [NSW] Wagga victim's mother's letter to SMH

["David Bennetts" <davibenn@ozemail.com.au>]

"Chris Downs" <cvdowns@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
JavH6.3342$VM5.108652@ozemail.com.au">news:JavH6.3342$VM5.108652@ozemail.com.au...
> This letter published in today's Sydney Morning Herald is worth a read
(copied
> in full below).  It was written by the mother of one of the 5 dead boy's
from
> the Gerogery XPT/car collision.  Very sad but it also clearly shows
emotion
> overruling reason on safety (hard to blame the mother though, grief for
her
> only son).  Absolutely no responsibility allocated to the car driver
however
> and I'm sure it'll hit a sympathetic community nerve.
>
> Chris
>

Whilst Dick Smith's comments some years ago about "affordable safety" in
aviation provoked a great deal of controversy, one has to realistic about
what degree of protection should be offered in transport safety.  It would
be pointless to provide boom gates on every crossing, there has to be an
onus of care on everyone crossing railway tracks, whether by vehicle or on
foot.
Having just returned from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, where platform doors
are used on underground stations, should we apply this system to every
station?  Once they are applied underground, then should they be extended to
above ground?  Suburban area, then country?  I can imagine them on Burradoo
station, where probably a dozen or so people board trains every day.

Rather than having us re-invent the wheel, I have forwarded a submission to
the Staysafe Committee's Inquiry that they look at the success of the
Operation Lifesaver Campaign in the US and Canada, which has more than
halved the number of level crossing accidents there.  It concentrates on
three aspects - education, enforcement and engineering.
The basic aspects of their campaign are at
http://www.oli.org/ol_basics/mission.html

Regards

David Bennetts