Driver dies after train hits car in Bay of Plenty

Wednesday, 5 July 2017

There was nothing Stan Keane could do.

The digger driver was working beside beachfront railway tracks between Tauranga and Whakatane on Wednesday when a train hit a car, killing the car's driver.

Keane heard the train coming.

He turned to wave and saw the car stuck to the front of the locomotive with a man inside.

'I dumped the bucket in the river and jumped over - the doors were stuck shut,' Keane said from the scene at Otamarakau Sandpit Reserve.

The man was alive when Keane, the first on the scene, got to him.

'I ripped the grill of the truck off to stop the horn which was stuck on.'

Keane dialled 111 at 8.35am to alert emergency services. They arrived 15 minutes later.

'There was nothing we could do. We assessed the situation and in the end I had to leave it and go back to work.

'There were five of us there. What could we do but stand around watching some poor guy die?

'It's something you never hope to see. It was something out of a movie.'

Camp caretaker Colin Campbell was cleaning out a freezer when he heard the train coming.

He saw a car coming across the level crossing toward the camp and thought, jesus that's close.

'Then he's hit the bloody car.'

Campbell ran over.

'He was all pinned in. I rolled up a jacket and put it by his head. We couldn't get to him, the doors were all stuck. He had to be cut out.'

Colin tried to talk to the man to offer what comfort he could.

'I don't think he could hear us. He wasn't responding.

'I told him the ambulance and police were on their way. He just kept taking short shallow breaths. I just tried to get him as comfortable as I could.

'The train driver got out and joined us. He was shaken up as well. He said he had 11000 tons on board and tried to stop.'

The car was hit side-on and carried along the train tracks. There are no barriers on the train lines where the road intersects.

'I'm not sure if he didn't see or hear the train coming. The radio was very loud when I got to the car.'

Another witness, Peter Luke, heard a horn sound about three times.

'The train driver must have tried to stop,' he said.

'Next thing I saw the train come past with the car stuck to the front of it.'

The male driver of the car died at the scene, police said. No-one else was injured.

KiwiRail said in a statement that the freight train was travelling from Kawerau to Mt Maunganui at the time.

'The locomotive driver is understandably distressed but physically uninjured,' the spokesperson said.

KiwiRail has shut down the train line that runs along the coastline from the eastern to western Bay of Plenty and into the Port of Tauranga.

Fire and Emergency NZ northern communications shift manager Megan Ruru said the initial call came via a cellphone reporting a car versus a train.

The driver was initially reported to be in a serious condition and severely trapped inside the vehicle, she said.

Firefighters from Pukehina and Maketu responded and were expected to remain on site until 11.30am.

Police would not release further details until next of kin are informed.