Gawler train line: Mum gets X-ray after foot trapped in door

Innocently catching a train out north, a mum was lucky to escape after she got stuck in a train door. Her son was left helpless, asking, ‘mummy, are you okay?’

The Gawler train line has come under more scrutiny with a mother recounting her shock as she was stuck in the train’s closing doors and left there.

Mount Barker woman Amy Dudfield, 39, was catching the train from the Adelaide Railway Station out to Elizabeth earlier this week with her eight-year-old son when the train doors clamped down on her foot, immobilising her.

“I felt really confused and panicked,” Ms Dudfield told The Advertiser.

“I thought someone was pushing me from behind and it took me a few minutes to realise the doors had closed on me and I was stuck.

“I remember crying out and then trying to find Sam (her son) who was in front of me and he was horrified and nearly in tears.

Amy Dudfield, with her foot in a brace, and her son Sam. Amy was trapped in the closing door of a train on the Gawler line. Picture: Supplied

Passengers on the Gawler Platform as people enjoy entertainment and a free train ride on the newly opened Gawler Line at Gawler Train Station earlier this year. Picture Emma Brasier

“He helped me through the doors when I could finally move and said, ‘mummy, are you okay?’

“(I was) trying to keep calm for Sam when all I wanted to do scream in pain.”

Ms Dudfield said she was a regular user of public transport, but was dismayed by how short the period of time the doors stayed open for, and the inadequacy of the alerts to say they were shutting.

She said she had concerns the alarm system for closing doors did not adequately meet the needs of all people, including those who are neurodivergent.

She said she was horrified to think what could have happened if her son – who has diagnosed autism and ADHD – a pram or toddler had been the victim instead of her.

After the scare, Ms Dudfield had to get an X-ray of her foot to see if it was broken and now has to wear a brace until she finalises a treatment plan to mend possible structural damage.

A train departs the Adelaide Parklands Terminal, Train Station, Keswick Terminal South Australia. Picture NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

Ms Dudfield explained the injury in a report to Adelaide Metro.

“My foot was crushed and my toes are grazed, red, bruised and extremely sore,” she said.

Sharing her story online, other users of the train line said they had similar experiences.

“It did it to my elderly father and he fell and the train kept going,” Mandy Evans wrote.

“If it wasn’t for a young man that pulled the doors open and got my dad out, and somebody desperately pushing the stop button, he would probably not be alive.”

The Infrastructure and Transport Department, which runs Adelaide Metro, did not provide statistics on how many reports of passengers been trapped in doors had been made so far this year.

“Adelaide Metro is confident that doors on all trains operating across the rail network are working correctly to allow passengers to safely board and disembark,” a spokesman said.

“A small number of isolated incidents where doors have closed on passengers on trains have been reported, however these incidents generally occurred when a passenger using the doors incorrectly.”