SA Footy

Railway Sleeper's Incredible Escape
Updated:08:18, Friday January 11, 2008

A drunken Australian had a miraculous escape after passing out on a railway line.
The 20-year-old unnamed man fell asleep at a level crossing after a night out in Port Augusta, South Australia state.
The freight train driver saw the reveller on the track and slammed on the emergency brakes.But the train was carrying 3,000 tonnes of freight and was unable to stop in time.

It past over him - missing his head by inches - as the man slept through the ordeal. But he did not get away completely unscathed.He was taken to hospital with bruising after he woke up and banged his head on the underside of the train.

Rail spokesman Tony Aldridge said the clearance under the train was only 11 inches and the man was lucky to be alive. He pointed out it was "not the best place" to take a nap. Mr Aldridge added: "It was probably lucky he was lying in such a way that the train actually went over him rather than across him."

Didn't hear about that here., did a google for the head line and found plenty of overseas references to the article though.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 82,00.html

Here's the link.

F##king idiot...

I spoke to a bloke who works for the rail, as he said the driver of the train is absolutly gutted.
Where's the story on the driver and the counselling, and loss of pay due to stress leave etc etc...

johntheclaret wrote:He pointed out it was "not the best place" to take a nap.

glad he cleared that up

His name is Ben Reid.

This sort of thing happens all the time.
Apparently the warmth of the tracks makes it worth sleeping.

Dogwatcher wrote:His name is Ben Reid.

This sort of thing happens all the time.
Apparently the warmth of the tracks makes it worth sleeping.

As does the gentle rocking motion of the tracks as a 500 tonne freight train rumbles along...

SJABC wrote:I spoke to a bloke who works for the rail, as he said the driver of the train is absolutly gutted.

Why is he gutted? Because he missed?

Wedgie wrote:

SJABC wrote:I spoke to a bloke who works for the rail, as he said the driver of the train is absolutly gutted.

Why is he gutted? Because he missed?

He didn't miss.

He was quite upset that the brakes didn't stop the train in time to stop hitting the bloke.
Terrible situation for the driver to be put into IMO, seeing someone on the tracks and watching it in slow
motion as you run over them...

SJABC wrote:

Wedgie wrote:

SJABC wrote:I spoke to a bloke who works for the rail, as he said the driver of the train is absolutly gutted.

Why is he gutted? Because he missed?

He didn't miss.

Was the article wrong or did I misread this:

johntheclaret wrote:It past over him - missing his head by inches - as the man slept through the ordeal."

Wedgie wrote:

SJABC wrote:

Wedgie wrote:

SJABC wrote:I spoke to a bloke who works for the rail, as he said the driver of the train is absolutly gutted.

Why is he gutted? Because he missed?

He didn't miss.

Was the article wrong or did I misread this:

johntheclaret wrote:It past over him - missing his head by inches - as the man slept through the ordeal."

Even saw a picture of him alive.

Sort of, he actually was dragged by the train for a little bit, but due to speed involved suffered minimal injuries.

He cut his head open when he sat up underneath the train , and smacked it...

He's alive - miraculously. He was hit by the train when he sat up because the noise woke him up.
Think about the way your heart pumps when you're nearly involved in a car accident when it's going to be metal on metal (all going well).
I'd imagine the shock of seeing someone on the trainline and hitting them would be pretty scary.

Dogwatcher wrote:Think about the way your heart pumps when you're nearly involved in a car accident when it's going to be metal on metal (all going well).

Yeah I did, that's why I can't work it out, after a few seconds of shock you're elated nothing happened and you're on cloud 9 for the rest of the day.

True, Wedgie that's what I would've thought, relief that he's OK, but these sort of thing (people on the track, cars on the track) happen a couple of times a year (that's reported) and the drivers are worried about accidentally killing someone...

I'd hate to be the driver when someone is killed in a similar way...

Can't begin to imagine how frightening an experience that must have been for the driver ... The amount of "What if's" going through his mind after would be equally as haunting.

Constance_Perm wrote:Can't begin to imagine how frightening an experience that must have been for the driver ... The amount of "What if's" going through his mind after would be equally as haunting.

I always thought train drivers were made to hit deadman switch and turn around to not have stress related problems later on.

having dealt with a few train drivers over the years involved in these type of incidents, let me tell you it is very distressing for them. Most know how hard it is to pull up a car quickly if you need to, imagine a train, it ain't easy and it ain't easy for those that have to clean up the mess either. Thankfully this time, someone has lived to tell the tale, if I was him, wouldn't go anywhere near buying a X lotto ticket cause he just used all of his luck up bigtime

locky801 wrote:having dealt with a few train drivers over the years involved in these type of incidents, let me tell you it is very distressing for them. Most know how hard it is to pull up a car quickly if you need to, imagine a train, it ain't easy and it ain't easy for those that have to clean up the mess either. Thankfully this time, someone has lived to tell the tale, if I was him, wouldn't go anywhere near buying a X lotto ticket cause he just used all of his luck up bigtime

yeah no coupons left there imo

Wedgie wrote:

Dogwatcher wrote:Think about the way your heart pumps when you're nearly involved in a car accident when it's going to be metal on metal (all going well).

Yeah I did, that's why I can't work it out, after a few seconds of shock you're elated nothing happened and you're on cloud 9 for the rest of the day.

In a car the shock would be over in a few seconds, a train would be still moving, the driver would have no idea what has happened to the d!(k head that was lying on the tracks, I'd say it would be very stressfull knowing that you have gone over him, and it would take quite a bit of time to find out the pr!(K wasn't dead.