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School bus in a near disaster at Landsborough |
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Written by Les Fawkes
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Friday, 04 December 2009 |
Less
than a few seconds separated a train and bus carrying students and a
teacher from a Beerwah school from a serious disaster on the level rail
crossing at Landsborough. This incident occurred about midday on
December 3rd on the crossing just 100 meters from the Landsborough Rail
Station.
“The train missed by about 50 metres, but with a train going that speed the difference is about three seconds,” a Queensland Rail spokes-person said.
Train drivers regularly report trains in near-misses with vehicles at level crossings on the Brisbane to Nambour line. Police are investigating this specific incident. In most of these incidents accidents are avoided only by good luck. On average it takes a train travelling at a moderate speed at least 500 meters to stop.
Results of the police investigation are not available at this time, but a witness stated that the bus may have stalled whilst crossing the line and the level crossing gate may have come down whilst the bus was stalled.
Incidents involving collisions at rail crossings involving moving trains generally end in a fatality. Queensland Rail has reported 122 incidents on the Sunshine Coast at rail - road crossings in the last five years. Luckily not all of these have resulted in collisions, but mostly, drivers crossing the rail line whilst the lights are flashing and the boom gates are down.
The Beerwah rail crossing was one crossing or real concern but this problem has been eliminated with the recent opening of the Beerwah Rail overpass system.
The near-miss at Landsborough came in the same week that Queensland Rail launched a DVD featuring train drivers pleading for motorists to act with common sense on level crossings.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 21 December 2009 )
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Range News 2005 - ON 
