On 17 December 1999, an incident occurred near Greymouth where a locomotive engineer was given permission by train control for his train to enter a section of track already occupied by a hi-rail vehicle. The driver of the hi-rail vehicle saw the train and was able to off-track in time to avert a collision.
On 17 January 2000, train control gave permission for a group of hi-rail vehicles to on-track near Paerata in front of a passenger express train. The train collided with one of the hi-rail vehicles and pushed it some 300 m along the track. The hi-rail vehicle, which was unoccupied at the time, was destroyed in the collision.
Another 2 incidents occurred where train control gave permission for trains to enter sections of track occupied by hi-rail vehicles: one on 14 February 2000 near St Andrews, and one on 5 September 2000 near Woodville. Neither of these 2 incidents resulted in collisions.
Given the similar issues arising from each incident, all 4 were combined into this one report.
Safety issues identified included:
• the repeated non-adherence to basic train control techniques taught during training and covered by procedures in the operating code
• inadequate auditing and assessment of train controller performance
• train controllers not using, nor being required to use, signal "blocking commands" as a defence against them issuing conflicting instructions to track users
• the potential for train controllers to report for duty when not fit to do so.
Four safety recommendations were made to the operator to address the safety issues.
