Rail safety overhaul ordered after fatality
A SAFETY overhaul has been ordered for rail workers after a contractor was killed by an express train at Newbridge, west of Bathurst, two years ago.
Luke John Jenkinson, 25, died when a westbound Sydney-to-Orange Countrylink XPT carrying 71 passengers hit the track-mounted excavator he was using 3km east of Newbridge in May 2010.
Coroner Mary Jerram yesterday (Friday) ordered the overhaul after finding Mr Jenkinson’s death was the result of a series of human errors.
Mr Jenkinson’s three-man work group, including his supervisor brother Marc, went on to the tracks just as the train came towards them at 70km/h.
Their location was not recorded on a form the workers had filed with a control officer, leading the officer to assume they were in a depot at Bathurst.
The contractors had also failed to lay mandatory warning flags on the track.
Ms Jerram said network rules governing track access were “unclear” and work practices had become “sloppy”.
Ms Jerram told the Australian Rail Track Corporation and other rail infrastructure managers to amend network rules so that track access can’t be granted while trains are nearby. | 
Regional
