Article: Crashes spark transport chaos

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Melbourne's train system has been thrown into chaos this morning with two separate accidents.

A pedestrian was struck and killed by a train near Station Street at Aspendale station on the Frankston line at 11.09am.

Just before 10.30am a car was driven onto train tracks at Toorak Road, Hawthorn on the Glen Waverley line. Emergency services are attempting to free the male driver from the wreckage.
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The car was stationary on a level crossing on the Glen Waverley line when the collision occurred soon after.

Ambulance Victoria spokesman Paul Bentley said members of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade were attempting to free the male driver from the wreckage of the car, which had been damaged extensively.

Mr Bentley said the car had been struck at a level crossing on Toorak Road, near Milton Parade, close to where Toorak Road crosses over the Monash Freeway in the Kooyong-Hawthorn area. Mr Bentley said the train involved in the collision had come to rest about 200 metres from the level crossing.

The incident has sparked massive transport problems in the area, with Glen Waverley line trains suspended between Burnley and Darling stations, and Toorak Road blocked off by police between Glenferrie and Tooronga roads.

A man who called radio station 3AW said he had seen the male driver cross onto the tracks in the path of an oncoming train soon after fellow drivers had told him to drive clear of the level-crossing.

The man, who was in a nearby car, saw two elderly women in another vehicle next to the victim's car speaking to him in the moments before the collision.

''Some ladies spoke to him just a couple of seconds before it,'' the caller, Stephen, said.

''The two ladies were speaking to him, maybe for 10 or 15 seconds then they obviously told him ... he was going the wrong way ... and then he just drove straight out.''

Traffic travelling along Toorak Road is being diverted onto the Monash Freeway.

Motorists travelling on the Monash Freeway exiting at Toorak Road are being diverted outbound along Toorak Road.

A Metro spokeswoman said busses were replacing trains on the Glen Waverley line between Burnley and Darling stations, and on the Frankston line between Modialloc and Frankston stations.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/crashes-spark-transport-chaos-20111114-1neje.html#ixzz1ddwhQEeA