Passengers Annoyed with Safety Do-Gooders

ONE of the 18 passengers on the train which collided with a 4WD yesterday south of Scone said their four hour wait on the train was because of “all these do-gooders that wrap people in cotton wool”.

The female passenger in her early 70’s, wished to remain unnamed, but was happy to describe the fiasco that played out following the incident:

It was still dark and I felt a jolt and then another passenger yelled that we had hit a car.

Two Daracon trucks came down, because they’d seen what had happened and brought down someone to do first aid.

The passenger train involved in yesterday’s collision.

Thankfully everyone was ok, but then we had to sit on the train for four hours.

Initially we were told it was because police needed to take statements.

When other people arrived they said they would get a bus for us, but guess where they ordered the bus from? Cessnock!

We sat there watching all of these empty Osborn buses driving past wondering why they hadn’t just called Osborn’s or Fonzie.

The bus from Cessnock arrived with a safety officer, who then said they needed to get a ladder to get us off the train.

Then they decided they couldn’t use a ladder, because we’d have to walk through gravel, but we are country people we are used to walking around paddocks and on rough ground!

We told them to get the local SES, but they decided not to do that either.

Then a helicopter landed in the paddock with engineers and they fiddled around for a while and rocked the train.

All I wanted was a coffee, someone went to Coles to bring us some water and after a while the toilets ran out of water and we couldn’t flush.

Once they checked the train they said they would take us to Muswellbrook, but we all said ‘no we want to go back to Scone’ and it took us 20 minutes to get back there.

The ambulance, police and train staff used a small ladder on the back carriage to access the train, but it was deemed too unsafe for any of the passengers to use.

I was probably the oldest person on the train and I can still climb a ladder, I don’t like going very high, but I can climb one and the ladder at the back of the train is just a little one anyway.

They had turned the engine off and left the air-conditioner going, but the doors were locked and had to be manually opened to prevent anyone jumping off the train.

Some younger people decided to walk back to St Aubin’s and their mum was going to pick them up, but they tried to open the doors and couldn’t.

I can’t imagine with buses from Cessnock and a helicopter from somewhere and all those train staff how much money the whole thing cost them, it must be 10’s of $1,000’s.

Related stories:

• Timely Caution for Local Drivers – July 11, 2019
• Passenger Train Collided with 4WD near Scone – July 10, 2019