Article: Woman killed by train after ducking boom gate

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Woman killed by train after ducking boom gate

Woman killed by train after ducking boom gate
MEGAN LEVY
March 2, 2010 - 12:05PM

A woman has died after she was hit by a train in Melbourne's south this morning.

The 49-year-old victim had ducked under a railway boom gate and was clipped by a city-bound train at Aspendale railway station just before 8.20am.

A police spokeswoman said it appeared the woman had stopped at the railway crossing, between Station Street and the Nepean Highway, and waited for a Frankston-bound train to pass.

When that train had gone through, she ducked under the boom gate, not realising there was another train coming from the opposite direction.

She was clipped by the second train and died at the scene.

Intensive care paramedic Nanto Cielens said he arrived to find the woman lying in the middle of the railway tracks.

''The woman did ... have massive head injuries, and she died at the scene within around half an hour,'' he said.

''Witnesses have told us that it looked like she had been trying to cross the tracks when she was hit.''

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

A section of the Frankston railway line was closed and commuters faced delays while police investigated.

Normal train services have resumed.

People must learn to obey warning signals and not bypass pedestrian gates.