Goodna rail incident
Rail fatalities, Goodna, Queensland — 11 March 2006.
The
Goodna Rail Safety Investigation Report QT1755 (PDF, 449 KB) is available to view online or download and print.
At 6.38pm EST (GMT +10) on Saturday 11 March 2006, a football special QR passenger train (designated as Train 10M1) left Redbank for Brisbane. Two minutes later, the crew of Train 10M1 contacted the QR network controller and reported that the train had struck three people.
The network controller initiated the emergency procedures, which included mobilising the emergency services to attend the site. At 6.55pm EST (GMT +10), emergency services arrived on the scene and found that three children aged eight, nine and 10 were involved. All had died as a result of being struck by the train.
The principal cause of the accident was the presence of the three children on an operating railway track where neither the train driver nor the children had sufficient opportunity to react to avoid the collision.
The investigation concluded that while QR has standards and procedures that address what to do when people are found to be on or near railway tracks, a further review of these procedures should be undertaken following this accident. This review should consider, among other things, aspects of train operation including the use of the train whistle, train headlight and the train operating speeds.
