A transport safety investigation has been launched into a collision between a utility vehicle and a freight train at a level crossing in western Victoria on Tuesday morning.
The collision occurred around 10:15 am local time at the Reddies Road passive level crossing at Cressy. Tragically, two people in the utility vehicle were fatally injured. The train drivers were not physically injured, and the train remained on the tracks.
The independent, ‘no blame’ transport safety investigation will be conducted by Victoria’s Office of the Chief Investigator under a collaboration agreement with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
A team of investigators arrived on site on Tuesday afternoon to commence the investigation.
A final report will be released at the conclusion of the investigation. Should a critical safety issue be identified during the investigation, relevant parties will be notified immediately, so that appropriate safety action can be taken.
Background: The Office of the Chief Investigator (OCI) is the operational office of the Chief Investigator, Transport Safety, a statutory position established in the Transport Integration Act 2010 (Vic) to provide independent, no blame investigation of transport safety matters in Victoria.
OCI can investigate rail occurrences in Victoria under the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 (Cth), under a collaboration agreement with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The ATSB is Australia’s national transport safety investigator, and conducts no blame aviation, rail and marine transport safety investigations to help prevent the occurrence of similar future accidents.