Article: Gang of youths terrorise driver after stopping train on Gold Coast

[ozbob]

From the Couriermail click here!

Gang of youths terrorise driver after stopping train on Gold Coast

Gang of youths terrorise driver after stopping train on Gold Coast

    by: Andrew MacDonald
    From: The Courier-Mail
    December 25, 2011 3:25PM

POLICE are hunting up to 10 youths who forced a city-bound train to stop on the Gold Coast before terrorising its driver during a Christmas Eve vandalism attack.

Queensland Rail acting CEO Martin Ryan said the driver made an emergency call about 10pm last night after the train was forced to stop between Helensvale and Coomera stations as up to 10 youths took to the tracks.

"The vandals then used spray paint before smashing train windows," said Mr Ryan.

"The vandals used rocks and bolt cutters, hitting the drivers door, in the sickening attack"

Mr Ryan said the youths had also caused significant damage to a signalling box which would result in train delays through the area for up to 48 hours.

He went on to slam the vandals' actions.

"These people are criminals and their actions have caused significant damage and endangered people's lives," he said.

"They themselves could have been seriously injured or even killed; they could have seriously injured others.

"Not only is this very distressing for the driver and for the estimated 50 customers on board, but extra crews will have to be called out from their Christmas Day celebrations today to assist in the repair and clean-up effort."

Anyone with information about the attack should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

[ozbob]

Only matter of time to track down these scum.

Hope they realise they face anything up to a life sentence ...  and is time that the courts started to apply the proper penalties in my opinion.

--> http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_act/cc189994/s467.html

CRIMINAL CODE 1899 - SECT 467
467 Endangering the safe use of vehicles and related transport infrastructure

(1) A person who, with intent to prejudice the safe use of a vehicle or related transport infrastructure or to injure property in a vehicle or related transport infrastructure, does anything that endangers, or is likely to endanger, the safe use of the vehicle or related transport infrastructure commits a crime.

Maximum penalty life imprisonment.

(2) In this section

do anything, for a person who has a duty to do the thing, includes omit to do the thing.

in includes on.

related transport infrastructure includes a road, railway, runway, station, airport, terminal, wharf, jetty or other structure used by a vehicle to travel or by persons using a vehicle to travel.

[Gazza]

Can the train just slow to walking pace. Slow enough to not actually splatter them, but enough to get through the zone and then gradually accelerate away?

[somebody]

^ And what would the coroner say if one of them was injured or killed doing so?

[Mr X]

Tough luck? Could the train have reversed away...?

[HappyTrainGuy]

Nope, safeworking rules apply. Not to mention poor visability directly around the train at night time let alone the poor lighting on the Gold Coast Line. The driver could have put it in reverse but that could cause more issues with signaling and issues with reversing when people are surrounding the train. The driver, guard and passengers were never in any danger considering you'll need more than bolt cutters and rocks to smash through a train window/door unless they had knowledge of how to access the train from the outside.

I bet this gets hardly any media attention 

[Gazza]

^ And what would the coroner say if one of them was injured or killed doing so?

Onus is on the people in the wrong. You'd have to be having a pretty bad day to not get out of the way of a train at walking pace 

[#Metro]

Onus is on the people in the wrong. You'd have to be having a pretty bad day to not get out of the way of a train at walking pace

They came with bolt cutters? My, it looks like they were prepared!

I think all trains should have CCTV AND one camera to look outside and also out the front window recording everything. BT Buses already do this- records the passengers in the vehicle plus one camera is inside the driver cabin pointing out towards the traffic so if there is an accident everything is captured.

If there are people on the railway, then yeah, they shouldn't be there, but their mere presence DOES NOT make it OK to start doing dangerous stuff with the train. Independant actions...

[O_128]

^ And what would the coroner say if one of them was injured or killed doing so?

Onus is on the people in the wrong. You'd have to be having a pretty bad day to not get out of the way of a train at walking pace 

Remember the 3 kids killed a while back? One had traces of cocaine and qr was still in the wrong

[HappyTrainGuy]

TT, some trains already have CCTV cameras that are located looking forward from both cabs

[Gazza]

^ And what would the coroner say if one of them was injured or killed doing so?

Onus is on the people in the wrong. You'd have to be having a pretty bad day to not get out of the way of a train at walking pace 

Remember the 3 kids killed a while back? One had traces of cocaine and qr was still in the wrong

That train wasn't going at walking pace though was it?

[HappyTrainGuy]

I assume your referring to the incident on the Ipswich line between Goodna nad Redbank back in 06?  Said train wasn't fitted with a data recorder but i twas on a 60kph curve taken at about ~50kph IIRC.

[Gazza]

I mean, I guess what I'm getting at is if the driver started rolling slowly, its not going to squash them or anything, because the wheels are so far under the carriage due to the narrow gauge.
But it is going to make it very hard for the kids to do any graffiti, because they'd be trying to spray whilst trying to keep up alongside, walking across uneven ballast.

[HappyTrainGuy]

It might be narrow gauge but it still doesn't prevent injury if one might happen to stumble; Be it run over by the wheels, having clothing/bag caught on the underside and being dragged along the side of the train, crawling underneath the train to get to the other side or attempt to climb/hang onto the side (All of which has happened before). It also doesn't matter if the train is stationary or moving graffiti still gets applied. It might not be murals like we all saw during the floods but rather quick tags or just spraying for the sake of it like the racing stripes some trains frequently carry from people standing on platforms or from running beside the train on the ballast while its at a station. Its also a mute point if the signal up ahead is showing a red aspect.

[BribieG]

On the "Bombay Railway Network" show earlier this year - fascinating series - they reported how, when someone is run over by a train, which happens frequently, the driver is simply required to put in a report at the next station, and they send someone back to retrieve the body. Clearly "Nanny State" doesn't apply to India in general, nor to many of our SE Asian neighbours. Maybe time for us to HTFU a bit in certain areas as well? The rise of out of control kids, gangs etc is arguably a result of people being cosseted and shielded from the consequences of their actions so they come to realise that they can do what they want with little interference from the weak "nanny bound" authorities. Not suggesting that we should go as far as to round them up en mass and take them out over the ocean, disembowel them (to attract the sharks) and throw them out of the planes like they did to dissident students in Argentina in the Dirty War, so that was one avenue that was actively explored, but I feel we should take the kid gloves off somewhat.

Discuss ? 

[somebody]

^ And what would the coroner say if one of them was injured or killed doing so?

Onus is on the people in the wrong. You'd have to be having a pretty bad day to not get out of the way of a train at walking pace 

Not my question.

Discuss ? 

I'd be in favour of people accepting more personal responsibility.

[#Metro]

Just because people are present in the alignment DOES NOT mean you can run them over.
Two wrongs don't make a right.

TT, some trains already have CCTV cameras that are located looking forward from both cabs

Good, but it needs to be all trains.

[petey3801]

Just because people are present in the alignment DOES NOT mean you can run them over.
Two wrongs don't make a right.

TT, some trains already have CCTV cameras that are located looking forward from both cabs

Good, but it needs to be all trains.

It is being rolled out at the moment. Everything bar the EMUs (and one, maybe two SMU200s) have forward facing cameras now.

[Golliwog]

Just because people are present in the alignment DOES NOT mean you can run them over.
Two wrongs don't make a right.

I don't think anyone is advocating that the trains continue on as if nothing is happening there. However, it should not be the problem it is now. These people need to learn that so what if they're bored, they can't just mess around with whatever they want. In a situation like this one, I would support Gazza's suggestion of getting the train moving slowly. If the kids are stupid enough to try and touch or crawl under a moving train then they deserve what they get.

[#Metro]

I don't think anyone is advocating that the trains continue on as if nothing is happening there. However, it should not be the problem it is now. These people need to learn that so what if they're bored, they can't just mess around with whatever they want. In a situation like this one, I would support Gazza's suggestion of getting the train moving slowly. If the kids are stupid enough to try and touch or crawl under a moving train then they deserve what they get.

If the train is moving, and someone gets injured or dies or whatnot then there is a huge problem right there. The movement of the train could possibly be a contributing factor - do you really want to give the clowns a free kick?

Anyway, I am not qualified to pass legal judgements, leave this one up to the courts.

Tired of clowns on the rail system. It is also bad for the image of rail and to see this stuff reported on the news/paper only gives the clowns gratification I am sure. And who the hell runs around with bolt cutters?

When I lived near a rail station I saw people shooting up drugs on the platform, thugs drunk off their face on the platform (they got drunk before they went out to get drunk, go figure), graffiti which would get covered up with green paint giving them a blank canvas, which would then get covered in graffiti a few days later, chromers chroming from shopping bags or coke bottles... the list goes on. Not to mention many train stations look like jail so ugly, no wonder it attracts these people.

Now that I'm near a busway -- I never see any of this crap. Make the stations bright and light, service frequent and station clean and not looking like a jail, half the problem gone...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

The book's author, George L. Kelling, was hired as a consultant to the New York City Transit Authority in 1985, and measures to test the broken windows theory were implemented by David Gunn. The presence of graffiti was intensively targeted, and the subway system was cleaned from 1984 until 1990. Kelling has also been hired as a consultant to the Los Angeles Police Department and to the Boston PD.

In 1990, William J. Bratton became head of the New York City Transit Police. Bratton described George L. Kelling as his "intellectual mentor", and implemented zero tolerance of fare-dodging, easier arrestee processing methods and background checks on all those arrested. Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his police commissioner Howard Safir also adopted the strategy more widely in New York City after Giuliani's election in 1993, under the rubrics of "zero tolerance" and "quality of life".

Thus, Giuliani's "zero-tolerance" roll out was part of an interlocking set of wider reforms, crucial parts of which had been underway since 1985. Giuliani had the police more strictly enforce the law against subway fare evasion, public drinking, urination, and the "squeegee men" who had been wiping windshields of stopped cars and demanding payment. According to the 2001 study of crime trends in New York by George Kelling and William Sousa,[3] rates of both petty and serious crime fell suddenly and significantly, and continued to drop for the following ten years.

[petey3801]

I think some people are forgetting that when these scum do crap like this, they have usually set off the track circuits (or, as in this case, severely damaged the signalling equipment) so the signals drop back to red. The train then comes along and stops at the signal and while Control are arranging the safeworking form (this times up to around 10mins to do the checks, give the information to the driver etc) the grubs do what they do while the train is unable to proceed.

Before anyone says the train should just reverse in this case, the same safewroking paperwork is required to set back anymore than 1 car length, therefore the train will still be stationary for just as long.

[O_128]

My heart says run the little ***** down but my head says there may be some issues with this.
lets hope they catch these kids and lock them up.

[Golliwog]

Well how long does it take to get the police down there? Surely not more than 10 minutes?

[petey3801]

Well how long does it take to get the police down there? Surely not more than 10 minutes?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaha... Sorry, but we'd be fairly lucky to have the police arrive there in half an hour! Particularly if  when it is between stations, as access can be difficult in places along the Gold Coast line!

[SurfRail]

Well how long does it take to get the police down there? Surely not more than 10 minutes?

Meanwhile, back in Queensland...

[HappyTrainGuy]

You'll be hard pressed to get them their within 45 minutes with the backwards and forwards communication especially on the Helensvale-Coomera section through the swamp land, constant bridges, farmland and peoples property hahaha.

[Gazza]

If the train is moving, and someone gets injured or dies or whatnot then there is a huge problem right there.

Not really, because the kids would win the Darwin award.
Out of every negative situation comes a positive.

[HappyTrainGuy]

If the train is moving, and someone gets injured or dies or whatnot then there is a huge problem right there.

Not really, because the kids would win the Darwin award.
Out of every negative situation comes a positive.

Like the dimwit that was drunk with friends on the Cleveland line, climbed the outside of a railbridge, fell onto the overhead powerlines, go electricuted, serious burns to 30% of his body, fructured his skull and then attempted to sue Queensland Rail for for $750,000 because they failed to maintain his safety? I think that guy that got electricuted at a substation for the Gold Coast line while tagging the building also ended up trying to sue Queensland Rail too.

[O_128]

If the train is moving, and someone gets injured or dies or whatnot then there is a huge problem right there.

Not really, because the kids would win the Darwin award.
Out of every negative situation comes a positive.

hmm, I am saving for a holiday

Like the dimwit that was drunk with friends on the Cleveland line, climbed the outside of a railbridge, fell onto the overhead powerlines, go electricuted, serious burns to 30% of his body, fructured his skull and then attempted to sue Queensland Rail for for $750,000 because they failed to maintain his safety? I think that guy that got electricuted at a substation for the Gold Coast line while tagging the building also ended up trying to sue Queensland Rail too.

[Set in train]

^ And what would the coroner say if one of them was injured or killed doing so?

Onus is on the people in the wrong. You'd have to be having a pretty bad day to not get out of the way of a train at walking pace 

Remember the 3 kids killed a while back? One had traces of cocaine and qr was still in the wrong

Don't forget the Cairns Tilt Train derailment north of Bundaberg!