Investigation finds pedestrian killed by train may have been ‘distracted by phone’

Tejas got off the train at Morningside Station and walked down the platform ramp and turned right, passing through an unguarded opening onto the tracks, when he stepped out in front of the approaching train from other side.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

24-year-old Tejas Patel was hit and killed by a train at an Auckland station in New Zealand on 29^th January 2015.

Stuff.co.nz reports Transport Accident Investigation Commission (NZ) has now concluded that Tejas, who was the main breadwinner for his family back home in India, "was very likely... distracted by the use of his mobile phone when he stepped out in front of the train".

The Commission found that after Tejas got off the train at Morningside Station and walked down the platform ramp and turned right, passing through an unguarded opening onto the tracks, when he stepped out in front of the approaching train from other side.

He was struck by the train and fatally injured.

The Commission said that the train was driving below the maximum line speed. The barriers and warning devices at the time too were in working condition. However there wasn’t sufficient protection at the bottom of the platform ramp where pedestrians could walk to the other side of the tracks.

The commission said a "key lesson" arising from its inquiry was how mobile devices were making users less aware about the hazards around them.

"Rail operators and providers of rail infrastructure must factor this into their risk assessments when designing safety into rail infrastructure," the commission said.

Working on the recommendations by the Commission, Auckland Transport have made necessary safety improvements at the Morningside Station.

Following this accident, Auckland’s Indian community had helped raise $10,000 to help Tejas’s father to accompany his son’s body home to India.