Safety Breaches that led to the Waterfall Railway Accident

Running head: WATERFALL RAILWAY ACCIDENT 1
Safety Breaches that led to the Waterfall Railway Accident
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WATERFALL RAILWAY ACCIDENT 2
Safety Breaches that led to the Waterfall Railway Accident
Introduction
There have been cases of rail accidents all over the world, and most of the accidents have
always been found to have been caused by various safety breaches. However, so many other
disasters have equally been reported to have occurred without necessary having specific breaches
of the safety regulations by the operators of the trains (Donaldson, Edkins, & Victoria, 2004).
Numerous safety precautions that have been put in place are intended to ensure that cases of such
accidents are reduced to an attainable level (Bahr, 2014). In Australia for instance, the body in
charge with managing the safety-related issues of trains have always ensured that such measures
are updated after every accident to ensure that there is no loophole (Donaldson, Edkins, &
Victoria, 2004). Australia has witnessed tragic accidents some of which include the incident
where a truck collided with a V/Line train that took place in 2007 claiming 11 lives including
children and leaving several others injured ("Families 'still hurting' 10 years on from Kerang rail
disaster", 2017). However, the findings demonstrated that there were no safety breaches by the
operators of the truck or the train (Glendon & Evans, 2007). Before the V/Line accident, there
was also the case of Waterfall railway incident that occurred in 2003, and seven people lost their
lives. This paper provides details of the investigation report by the Ministry of Transport (MOT)
regarding the Waterfall accident.
The investigation into the Waterfall Accident
It was on 31 January 2003 when Suburban passenger train left Sydney for Port Kembla
went out of the track before overturning while moving at high speed when was taking a curve
that is next to the Waterfall railway station. This was one of the most tragic rail accidents to have
ever happened as six people, and the train driver lost their lives while several others were left

WATERFALL RAILWAY ACCIDENT 3
with injuries. Due to its severity, there was great concern from the investigative agencies to find
out what could have resulted in such a tragic accident (Carey, 2017). Therefore, Honourable
Peter Mclnerney QC conducted an inquiry into the matter between 2003 and 2004 to find out
possible causes of the accident and come up with proper measures to prevent similar
occurrences. On the other hand, there was the investigation by MOT under the Rail Safety 2002,
and it was done as per the Australian Standards AS 5022-200. The two investigations were all
done to uncover the circumstances that led to the accident and provide appropriate measures to
prevent future occurrences.
The investigation by MOT was meant to examine rolling stock, human factors, and
infrastructure (Priestley & Lee, 2008). The outcome of the two investigations found out that
there were higher chances that the driver was incapacitated from the controls due to the early
medical condition a few minutes before leaving Waterfall station (Burton & Egan, 2010). It was
stated in the findings that the deadman system, as well as the guard, were selected risk controls
against the incapacitation of the driver.
The first cause of the accident can be stated to be the high speed of the train that was
above the speed for the curve. However, it is possible to identify systematic failures of the risk
controls that starts from the medical standards, training and the deadman system (Authority,
2016). The train is expected to reduce its speed if the driver is incapacitated. In the case of the
Waterfall accident, deadman system did not lower to the required level of risk (Mcintosh, 2007).
It was equally noted that several warnings concerning the flaw were not attended to in the
operational history of Tangara. This made it impossible for the deadman system to detect that the
driver was incapacitated to slow down.