RO-1998-104

On Monday 9 March 1998 at about 2359 hours, nine wagons of Train 928, a northbound Dunedin to Christchurch express freight, derailed near Purakanui at low speed. The train continued for approximately four kilometres before a brake application alerted the locomotive engineer to the problem. The point of the derailment coincided with that of an almost identical derailment involving Train 928 on 3 March 1998. Safety issues identified were the ability of track staff to identify and understand track related factors contributing to derailments and to make timely and safe decisions as to the remedial track work required before reopening the track to traffic.