News Paper - Adelaide Now

Ghan crash truck driver was deaf, report finds

February 13, 2008 03:30pm

THE truck driver involved in a collision with The Ghan passenger train in 2006 was profoundly deaf and should not have held a heavy vehicle licence.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau report found the road-train driver had bilateral hearing loss which "would have compromised his ability to hear the locomotive horn in the time leading to the collision".

The collision between the passenger train and the double road-train at the Fountain Head Rd level crossing, Ban Ban Springs, on December 12, injured many of the 64 passengers and 17 staff on board The Ghan.

The collision split the prime mover from its trailers, derailing two locomotives, nine passenger carriages and a wagon carrying cars.

Both the truck driver and a passenger aboard The Ghan were taken to Royal Darwin Hospital for treatment.

The driver received only cuts and abrasions despite ending up 18 metres from the train track. A British woman, aged in her 50s, suffered head injuries.

The report found the man driving the truck had failed to stop at the rail crossing where the accident happened.

"The investigation concluded that the truck was driven through the stop sign at the level crossing at a speed of about 50km/h," the bureau's report said.

"The driver of the truck traversed the level crossing many times during the course of his working day and had been in the habit of slowing rather than stopping at the level crossing stop sign."

The man worked for a company that was contracted to build an access road for a nearby mine and he had been crossing the train tracks up to 30 times a day in the month before the crash.

"During this time he had only seen about four trains, for none of which did he have to alter his normal driving pattern," the investigation found.

Data logged aboard The Ghan found the train had been travelling at 101km/h, within its limit of 110km/h.

"Other sources of evidence confirmed that the lead locomotives headlight was illuminated," the bureau said.



The Ghan is one of Australia’s best-known trains, travelling twice a week across Central Australia.

The route, which passes through Alice Springs, takes two nights in either direction and covers 2979km. The Ghan’s name is derived from the Afghan camel trains that travelled the same territory between Adelaide and Darwin in the years before the railway.

The line has existed in various forms since the late 19th century and first ran under its current name in 1929. A final rail link from Darwin to Alice Springs was completed in 2004