Families of rail crash victims release video calling for better visibility at regional train crossings

Devastated families of rail crash victims who have spent years lobbying Australian governments to improve the safety of regional train crossings have now created a video pushing the cause. The group of 12 families are calling for mandatory lighting on trains and for flashing lights or boom gates to be installed at all rail crossings. The video features Lara Jensen, whose 20-year-old brother Christian was killed along with two friends when a train hit their car at a railway crossing marked only with a give way sign in 2000. A State coroner found that no speed, alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash and concluded inadequate train lighting was a contributing factor in the deaths. Ms Jensen said the coroner recommended all locomotives be fitted with external auxiliary safety lighting to effectively warn motorists of their approach. “The recommendations were never enforced by governments or actioned by the rail industry,” she said. “None of the occupants saw the train — they didn’t stand a chance.” The video features Australian Trucking Association chief executive Mathew Munro, who argues that trains should have the same lighting requirements as trucks. “To ensure trucks can safely share the road with passenger vehicles and pedestrians, they must have marker lights showing their full length, width and height from any angle, day or night,” he said. “Yet right now, the biggest vehicles on our roads, trains, are the hardest to see.” Ms Jensen said 44 Australians have died on level crossings since national data began to be collected in 2016, and another 175 more have been injured. “Currently, 80 per cent of the rail crossings outside metropolitan Australian cities don’t have flashing warning lights or boom gates and trains don’t have any safety, visibility or outline lighting,” she said. Ms Jensen is the spokesperson for the Improve Train Lighting and Level Crossing Safety group, a self-financed group made up of families across the country who have lost loved ones to train accidents. The group has spent years lobbying for the Australian government to improve safety at unprotected regional railway crossings. Ms Jensen said it was a straightforward reform that would save the lives of people that live in or travel through regional Australia. “Our governments continue to present excuses why they can’t and won’t require the rail industry to comply with the same mandatory safety lighting standards that have long been in place in all hazardous and high-risk industries,” she said. “As a result of this inaction, we’ve needlessly lost many more people at rail crossings, and the figure grows every year.” The video also features Australian country music singer and Australian of the Year Lee Kernaghan, who said years on the road had shown him how difficult trains were to detect at night. Following the video release, WA Labor MLC Sandra Carr announced on Facebook that she supported mandatory safety lighting on all trains across Australia. A month earlier, a Facebook post from Assistant Transport Minister Jessica Stojkovski urged the public to contribute feedback on a redraft of train lighting standards. Ms Jensen said the video was backed by 20 big organisations, including the Liberal and National parties, farming groups and road transport groups. The group is also supported by the Country Women’s Association, who Ms Jensen says has been lobbying for train safety since 1949. The video made by the Improve Train Lighting and Level Crossing Safety group can be watched on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p50S8HKAW4