Pacific National CEO Paul Scurrah calls for national approach to improve level crossing safety

Pacific National boss Paul Scurrah says harsh penalties and a national campaign is needed to change behaviour around level crossings following the death of two drivers on New Year’s Eve.

Rail freight company Pacific National wants national, consistent and practical actions to address dangerous, high-risk behaviour at level crossings to save the lives of train crews and motorists across Australia.

The rail group’s chief executive Paul Scurrah will use the National Level Crossing Safety Roundtable in Brisbane on Wednesday to urge state and federal governments and road and rail operators to work more closely to improve awareness of level crossing safety and improve education with an ongoing coordinated campaign.

It comes after two Pacific National train drivers died on New Year’s Eve following a collision between a train and a truck near the NSW and South Australian border.

Mr Scurrah told The Australian that while many level crossing incidents relate to suicides and trespassing, collisions with road vehicles are the next largest cause. He added that near misses occurred frequently and had a severe impact on the industry, including the mental health and wellbeing of its crew.

Pacific National CEO Paul Scurrah wants urgent action to improve safety around level crossings. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

“Every train and truck driver has found themselves in a near-miss situation and for the rail sector it is difficult to do anything as a fully-loaded train can take 2km to stop,” he said.

“While the ultimate tragedy is a loss of life, the trauma that drivers experience from not just incidents, but also near misses change their lives forever and we want to put an end to it.”

Mr Scurrah called for the summit in the wake of the New Year’s Eve truck and train collision. Infrastructure minister Catherine King and Qld Transport minister Bart Mellish will also speak at the summit, which will be attended by representatives from about 60 rail and trucking companies, plus unions, industry groups and regulators.

“All stakeholders acknowledge that behaviours to be dealt with in an urgent fashion than it has been,” he said. “We want to take real action to address some of the contributing factors that are behaviour related.”

The boss of Australia’s largest private rail freight company said there were 20,000 level crossings across the country and a nationally consistent approach was required to raise awareness and to stamp out bad behaviour.

“We have been good at upgrading level crosses to reduce risks, but that doesn’t happen immediately, which is why we want to make changing behaviour just as important,” Mr Scurrah said.

A pilot study by Australian Rail Track Corporation at three regional NSW rail crossings revealed that, on average, more than half of the vehicles did not stop at stop signs, and

there were instances of noncompliance at the active crossing even with flashing lights and descending boom gates.

Two train drivers were killed after a collision with a truck on the Barrier Highway in Bindarrah on New Year’s Eve. Picture: Andrew Gosling

Mr Scurrah said that there needed to be stricter penalties that were the same across all states and territories to allow all Australians to understand the consequences of not obeying safety rules around level crossings.

“The penalties currently vary across the country, but a consistent and simplified approach will make the risks easier to communicate,” he said. “We also know that harsher penalties can change behaviour as seen with the NSW government’s moves to increase the fines for truck drivers driving into tunnels.”

Pacific National will also call for a change of behaviour through education and awareness via a single persistent voice instead of a one-off campaign, as well as increased collaboration and co-operation between the state bodies to improve the interfaces between road and rail.

“We will also be calling for a cross check, which entails rail and heavy vehicle regulators being able to cross check each other’s decisions to ensure that there are no unintended consequences to the other party from their decisions,” he said.

Freight On Rail Group, which is made up of Pacific National, Aurizon and One Rail, has also called for the use of effective technology to assist in preventing level crossing incidents or near misses, including in-car navigation alerts

Originally published as Pacific National CEO Paul Scurrah calls for national approach to improve level crossing safety