Safety barriers are not likely to be rolled out at all of Sydney’s train stations in the wake of a tragedy that saw a pram carrying two little girls roll onto the tracks.
Sydney commuters have called for greater safety on platforms after the pram carrying two-year-old twins felll onto the tracks at Carlton station on Sunday.
The girls’ father Anand Runwal, 40, leapt down from the platform and bravely attempted to save them, but a passing train struck and killed him and one of his daughters Hilal.
Mr Runwal’s wife, Poonam, watched on in horror and was screaming for her husband and children.
A woman had to hold Ms Runwal back as emergency responders jumped onto the tracks to try to locate her family.
Miraculously, Hilal’s twin sister Hiya was pulled from underneath the train and escaped the accident ‘with hardly a scratch on her’.
Authorities are yet to determine what may have caused the pram to roll away.
Three days on, Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland has conceded that the installation of guard rails across the whole network would be a massive challenge.
He said the size of the Sydney rail network, which consists of 500 platforms and various types of trains, pose significant logistical and structural issues.
The [train] doors are spaced at different intervals. So for a platform screen door to operate effectively, it needs to line up exactly with the train doors as they stop at the platform,’ Mr Longland told 7 News.
‘And the signalling system needs to ensure that the train can stop at that exact point on the platform’.
The guard rails commuters are calling for are glass barricades that separate a platform from the train tracks and are commonly used in metro stations across world.
The barricades were installed at eight recently opened Metro stations including Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt Street, Central, Waterloo and Sydenham.
The barricades also already exist at stations on the Sydney Metro Northwest line between Tallawong and Chatswood.
‘The key for platform screen doors is having a consistent fleet operating and really designing those platform screen doors in with the operation, as we’ve seen with the new Sydney Metro network,’ Mr Longland said.
He said several safety measures are already being rolled out across the network, including a platform gap filler.
The rubber strip is inserted onto platforms to fill the space between the platform and the train and stops belongings and commuters from falling between the gap.
Mr Longland said the gap filler had been rolled out across 19 stations and said more safety measures would be implemented when police conclude their investigations.
‘We’ll obviously consider all of the recommendations to ensure we’re managing safety right across the network,’ he said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said that he would not commit to installing the guard rails until he is briefed on how they will be set up.
Earlier on Wednesday, Principal owner and consultant at Railway Safety 101 Michael Maartensz told Daily Mail the horrible accident was caused by a ‘tragic set of circumstances’.
Mr Maartensz said it seemed the pram was briefly left unattended, and a gust of wind, coupled with the platform sloping, pushed it onto the tracks.
He said passenger or platform screen doors would have prevented the accident.
‘They’re designed to prevent people from accidentally getting too close to moving trains on railway stations,’ Mr Maartensz said.
‘In this instance, the pram would have just bumped into the passenger screen door and stopped. That’s the ultimate solution’.
The surviving toddler was taken to St George Hospital with her mum, who was on the platform when the accident occurred. The pair have since been discharged.
NSW Police are investigating what caused the pram to roll over and believe a simple ‘gust of wind’ could have caused the accident.
Superintendent Paul Dunstan said the parents appeared to have taken their hands off the pram for a ‘very short period of time’ before it rolled towards the tracks.
Mr Maartensz said the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator would also launch an independent investigation into the deaths at Carlton Station.
Mr Maartensz said the investigations will determine the root cause of the incident and will make key recommendations for the industry on how to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
‘It’s a serious incident that has caused deaths, there’s no doubt that it’ll be taken serious by the operators and the industry,’ Mr Maartensz said.
Sydney Trains advises passengers to stand behind the yellow line at platforms and wait until the train has come to a complete stop before boarding the train.
Passengers are also urged to mind the gap before getting on or off the train.
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman told Daily Mail the safety of passengers and staff remains the top priority of transport officials.
‘We are cooperating with the Office of Transport Safety Investigations (OTSI) investigation into the deeply tragic incident that occurred at Carlton over the weekend,’ the spokeswoman said.
‘[We] will look at any recommendations that are made as a result of this investigation’.