Ray Anglesey was a bloodied mess however he was in a position to inform a firefighter who had climbed into the locomotive how to flip off the engine.
He had a damaged neck and was carried out a aspect window on a stretcher.
“I remember blood oozing out of my head, which was split open, but I wasn’t even hurting,” Mr Anglesey stated.
“I could see these legs standing above me and Jarvis – I still remember his name – asked me how to turn off the engine.
“Alarm bells have been going off in all places … I used to be making an attempt to get my mind into gear.
“I must have been drifting in and out at this stage.”
‘All hell broke unfastened’
Now 73, the veteran train driver was taken from the Kalgoorlie crash website by ambulance to hospital and airlifted to Perth, the place he awoke nearly two weeks later.
It was the starting of a two-year restoration.
The occasions of February 22, 2021, grew to become clearer throughout a three-week keep in hospital in Perth.
A road train, comprised of a primary mover and three trailers, had pushed into the path of a 249-metre-long freight train with one locomotive and 12 wagons.
The train was travelling at about 37 kilometres per hour and had sounded its horn 3 times earlier than approaching the stage crossing.
The truck was travelling at about 70kph.
Mr Anglesey stated “all hell broke loose” when the collision occurred.
“When we hit the truck I thought, ‘Bloody hell,'” he stated.
“I grabbed the radio and I can’t recall if I got emergency out.”
The power of the collision resulted in the derailment of the locomotive, which got here to a cease about 40m from the crossing.Â
The truck’s prime mover uncoupled from its trailers, left the road and got here to a cease about 50m from the crossing.
An investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau later discovered the truck driver was reattaching a dash-mounted cell phone cradle inside his cab and didn’t see the flashing lights till it was too late.
The truck driver was not injured, however Mr Anglesey and one other train driver have been critically harm after being thrown round inside the locomotive cabin due to the speedy de-acceleration triggered by the affect.
‘Cleansing mechanism’
Mr Anglesey stated it was the most critical incident in his profession in the rail trade, which started in his native New Zealand in 1968.
He has been driving trains in Kalgoorlie since 2004 and has been concerned in some traumatic experiences, together with situations involving suicide by train.
“The railways have always provided counselling to us,” Mr Anglesey stated.Â
“My best counsellor has always been my wife … I knew the support was there.”
He stated he developed completely different coping mechanisms over the years.
“The worst part of a crossing accident — I used to feel real dirty, very dirty,”
“I’d go home and stand in the shower for 30 or 40 minutes.
“When I look again on it, it was a part of the therapeutic course of — or that is how I checked out it.Â
“It was a cleaning mechanism, as such.
“This is the first time I’ve spoken to somebody exterior of rail about it.”
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Helping out the ‘idiots’
After recovering from his injuries Mr Anglesey returned to work as a support officer with Aurizon, Australia’s largest freight operator.
“At the time I used to be considering of retiring, however that two years of restoration — I kind of checked out that as retirement and I did not prefer it,” he stated.
“You can solely learn so many books and watch a lot TV … I reckon going again to work has been an enormous help to my full restoration.”
Now Mr Anglesey is a part of an Aurizon security marketing campaign calling for motorists to take extra care at stage crossings.
The marketing campaign has been launched months after a 29-year-old truck driver from Victoria was charged following a near-miss with a freight train at a level crossing at Norseman in WA’s Goldfields.
“I would like to help – oh, can I say it? – idiots on the road,” Mr Anglesey stated.
“Hopefully I can help these buggers — it simply appears to be getting worse and worse.
“Signals just don’t seem to register with people the dangers right in front of them.”
Aurizon managing director Andrew Harding stated the security message was delivered by these straight impacted by stage crossing occasions, together with train crews and first responders.
“When our train crew see a vehicle or a person on the tracks, they can’t simply stop or swerve to miss,” he stated.
“A fully loaded train carrying freight can take two kilometres to stop, even when the emergency brakes are applied.
“Motorists are placing their lives on the line – and probably our train crew – if they don’t stay vigilant and take that further care when approaching stage crossings.”
