NSW; Waterfall inquiry to adjourn after 80 days of evidence

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NSW; Waterfall inquiry to adjourn after 80 days of evidence

By Holly Nott

SYDNEY, Aug 29 AAP - Determining what caused a Sydney commuter train to derail andsmash into a rockface at high speed, killing seven people, was never going to be an easytask.

But just hours after the January 31 tragedy, Justice Peter McInerney was dragged outof retirement and given responsibility for doing just that.

In the more than six months since the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Waterfallderailment began, it has heard from 160 witnesses over 80 days, seen 440 exhibits andproduced more than 7,000 pages of transcript.

On top of this, Justice McInerney was forced to call for an end to public speculationabout the cause of the derailment, argue the judicial independence of his inquiry, andtwice, in frustration, lashed out at witnesses over their patchy testimony.

One woman was arrested after she burst into the commission and handed him a threatening letter.

Early next week, armed with all the evidence, Justice McInerney will adjourn to considerhis findings on the adequacy of rail safety management systems, possible improvementsand the cause of the accident.

In his opening statement on April 1, counsel assisting the inquiry, Peter Hall, QC,said the way the four-carriage Tangara train had listed off the curved track just southof Waterfall station suggested speed was a contributing factor.

Later, the inquiry was to hear the train with more than 80 people on board was travellingat between 110kph and 120kph on a bend with a speed limit of 60kph.

Malcolm Kerr, principal track assurance engineer for the Rail Infrastructure Corp,said he was confident speed, and not the state of the track or a fault with the train,had caused the accident.

But what had caused the excessive speed?

Perhaps, as the inquiry heard, it was the fact the allotted eight minutes travel timebetween Waterfall and Helensburgh was an impossible target if drivers stayed within thespeed limits.

Or perhaps it was a combination of factors - like the proposition that driver HermanZeides, who died in the accident, was incapacitated prior to the accident, and the deadman'sbrake failed.

According to evidence before the commissioner, Mr Zeides was a well-loved family man,a happy employee and a safe train driver with 27 years experience on the state's railnetwork.

He was 53-years-old, weighed 116kg, and his wife Helen said although his cholesterolwas "a bit high" and he had once been hospitalised with a heart problem, he was in goodhealth.

But pathologist John Hilton, who performed the post mortem examination on Mr Zeides,testified it was possible he had suffered a "catastrophic cardiac event" and died justbefore the train derailed.

In his report, Professor Hilton listed brain injury and coronary artery disease asthe causes of death.

"He was certainly at risk of instant death from his coronary artery disease and itis at least possible that the coronary artery disease contributed to the chain of eventsthat ended in his death, if not directly causing his death immediately," he said.

Other key evidence presented to the inquiry revealed a litany of flaws in the train'semergency brake system.

The inquiry was told the deadman's brake on a Tangara was designed so that once pressurewas removed it acted as an emergency brake and brought the train to a halt.

But warnings that the deadman's brake was not a fail-safe mechanism dated back 15 years.

On June 16, David Kippist, the engineering manager of the rolling stock group for theSRA, testified he had received a memo in November 1988 warning the brake could be overriddenif a driver's foot was jammed between the heater and the brake.

Four days later, the inquiry was told a heavy driver such as Mr Zeides could preventthe deadman's brake from working if he was incapacitated and slumped against it.

Evidence also emerged of drivers using flagsticks and gum to override the emergencybrake by wedging it into position.

John Guselli, who was retained by the Transport Coordination Authority, testified thathe had inspected the derailed Tangara and had found "unusual markings" suggesting itsdeadman's brake had been overridden at some stage.

In addition, Justice McInerney heard various accounts of instances when the emergencybrake had either failed, or caused a train to accelerate instead of stop.

According to counsel for the victims, Robert Sutherland, QC, the final line of defenceafter a competent, conscious driver and the deadman's brake, was "a competent and alertguard".

Train guard Bill van Kessel was the only surviving crew member of the derailed Tangara train.

After initially being a reluctant witness, and following claims of union interferenceand broadsides from Justice McInerney, Mr van Kessel fronted the inquiry after seekingat least partial protection from his evidence being used against him in any other courtproceedings.

He admitted to the inquiry that he should have used the deadman's brake when the trainaccelerated into a curve moments before derailing.

"I didn't take appropriate action at that time," he said.

Justice McInerney may just hold the key to preventing further tragedies like the onethat claimed the lives of Mr Zeides, 49-year-old Sans Souci resident James Ritchie, YiZhang, 40, of Granville, Mark Hudson, 48, of Padstow Heights, John Burt, 62, of Figtree,Marie Genevieve Goder, 35, of Mortdale and Andrew Ludmon, 38, of Cronulla.

AAP hn/sjb/bwl

KEYWORD: WATERFALL (AAP BACKGROUNDER)