Article: 100s hurt on trains, trams

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

100s hurt on trains, trams

100s hurt on trains, trams

    * Peter Rolfe
    * From: Sunday Herald Sun
    * May 23, 2010 12:00AM

PASSENGERS on Victoria's train and tram network are being killed or seriously injured at a rate of more than four a week.

Previously secret transport figures reveal 338 commuters were badly injured on trains, trams, platforms and stations in the past two years and required hospital treatment.

One hundred people were killed - including more than 60 suspected suicides.

The incidents include a teenage girl being stabbed with a "dirty" syringe and a pedestrian dragged 140m by a train after being struck at a crossing.

Official Public Transport Safety Victoria audit reports, obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun through Freedom Of Information, show almost three serious accidents are occurring each week on Victorian trains

The reports of incidents, which contributed to delays on an already struggling network, also shed light on some of Melbourne's notorious public transport mishaps, including Richmond footballer Graham Polak's collision with a tram and the miraculous survival of baby Saurish Verma after his pram rolled on to the tracks at Ashburton railway station.

At least 19 people were seriously injured after being hit by trains in the past two years.

More than 30 people were seriously assaulted on trains in the same period, 98 passengers were injured after slipping, tripping or falling and 31 people killed or hurt at level crossings.

There were 19 people seriously harmed after being hit by trams and 19 during a tram collision.

Dozens of passengers were hurt after falling while riding between carriages, between trains and platforms, suffering heart attacks and getting caught in ticket gates.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said the Government should take the report seriously.

"There is more the Government could do to improve safety, especially by putting more staff on trains and at stations late at night," he said.

An incident report for the collision that left Polak in hospital says he sustained concussion and head and neck injuries.

"A male, mid-20s walking with a group of other persons walked into the path of an oncoming tram," it says. "Report from the scene suggest the group were intoxicated."

A spokesman for Public Transport Minister Martin Pakula, Bill Kyriakopoulos, said the Government took public transport safety seriously, but it was up to commuters to "be responsible and take care".

"All metropolitan railway stations are also equipped with newly upgraded digital CCTV and all have an emergency duress button which enables passengers to contact station staff in an emergency," he said.

The figures are dated before Metro's takeover of the train network and do not include train and tram passengers who refused hospital treatment.

Anyone with personal problems can call Lifeline on 131 114 or beyondblue (www.beyondblue.org.au) on 1300 224 636.

The next headline will read no doubt, millions hurt on roads ...

[Golliwog]

The next headline will read no doubt, millions hurt on roads ...

Hah. Not likely. That might take some work on the part of the journalist to dig up those sorts of figures.

[#Metro]

How do you stop people from having heart attacks, committing suicide or driving their car stupidly?
You can't!

No mode of transport is risk free. Even when driving a car people can release boulders and rocks onto your car and kill you- I read it in the paper recently.