WHAT happened at Tambelin railway station was a tragedy that should never happen again.
It has rocked a community, and left a young boy with his whole life ahead of him in a hospital bed, and his family not knowing if their son’s life will ever be the same again.
Of course, the question now becomes ‘how did this happen in the first place?’ In the immediate aftermath, the Department of Infrastructure and Transport an- nounced that it would be undertaking a review to get to the bottom of that very question.
Regardless, preventative steps should be the priority to ensure that this can’t happen again.
Instead the head of the Transport Department Jon Whelan has reveled that of the more than 50 stations along the Gawler line, only 17 will be upgraded.
That upgrade includes the installation of automatic gates that close when a train enters the platform, and opens again once it departs.
Tambelin is among those that won’t re- ceive a safety upgrade by the end of the year.
Mr Whelan says that there’s more than 240 stations across the whole of Adelaide’s rail network, and that the Transport Department “prioritize the ones that need to be activated”.
Would active crossings prevent last week’s tragedy?
We may never know the answer to that. But at the very least, it may have reduced the chances of it happening.
While Tambelin might not be one of the busier stations compared to some of the other platforms across the Gawler line, it is well used by school children particularly around morning and afternoon peak times.
Surely that should make Tambelin a priority?
And it’s not like the station isn’t already on the radar.
Member for Light Tony Piccolo pledged $350,000 to build a new carpark at Tambelin if elected at last year’s State Election.
But really, safety infrastructure only goes so far.
The key is education.
To quote Mr Whelan again: “There are boom gates and bells at that crossing.
“It’s important that we do all the educa- tion and training to make sure people use these correctly.”
TrackSAFE Foundation say there are more than 1800 near misses at level cross- ings around the country each year.
The collision at Tambelin, as well as the death of a 74-year-old woman at Grange in a similar incident, serve as a reminder as to what can happen.
Let’s make sure it doesn’t.
