By SCOTT INGLIS
The young man hid behind the concrete bridge abutment and waited.
He knew it was time when he heard the train round the corner at 70 km/h. He raced out, knelt on the track and looked straight into the eyes of train driver Kevin Phillips.
Neither man stood a chance.
Mr Phillips and his driving partner slammed on the emergency brakes. The fatal impact happened a split-second later, but the 50-tonne train and its 40 passengers would not stop for another 300m.
Mr Phillips will never forget the man's face. "Every time I go past that spot, it's always in the back of my mind."
At 2 pm on May 28, 1987, by Auckland's St Lukes bridge, the suicide became Mr Phillips' first rail death. There have been five more since.
Mr Phillips, with 27 years' experience in the railways, told the Weekend Herald his story of death on the job to highlight the dangers of trains and tracks.
A ministerial inquiry planned into Tranz Rail's safety record after the death on May 10 of the fifth worker in seven months.
Five pedestrians have been killed in the past five years, excluding suicides, and 31 people have died in vehicles hit at level crossings.
All these deaths leave behind shattered families and friends. But the train drivers also suffer.
The Railways and Maritime Transport Union estimates that at least 50 per cent of drivers have hit people or cars.
Some drivers - hardened, rugged men - never get over their first victim and quit. Others accept it as an occupational hazard and brace for their next victim.
Mr Phillips is one of those. With up to two decades until retirement, he believes more people will die under trains driven by him.
Since that first suicide, he has hit four other people on the tracks and killed one in a car. He hit three people in seven months.
Each time, he stood no chance of stopping quickly.
His last death was March 17 last year.
After hitting his first victim, Mr Phillips grabbed the locomotive radio to call for help, but the radio did not work.
He jumped out and ran a kilometre to a railway phone linking him to a control room.
Help arrived and an hour later, Mr Phillips and his partner continued their run. They finished their shift at 8.30 that night, were interviewed again by police and each man went home to deal with the tragedy in his own way.
But times have changed. The union says that after it lobbied Tranz Rail several years ago, drivers involved in deaths are now sent home. They also receive compulsory counselling.
Union general secretary Wayne Butson, who as a driver ran over 12 people, says counselling had to be mandatory to change the culture of macho drivers.
Mr Butson believes tracks should be fenced off in urban areas and every possible safety precaution taken to save lives.
Tranz Rail defends its safety management and says it is not that simple. Spokeswoman Nicola McFaull says that fences are easily damaged and vandalised.
A fence at Mt Albert railway station has a hole ripped in it. Schoolchildren climb through and walk across the tracks.
Adults often cross tracks, too, but children are the big problem. Mr Phillips says each working day he has to contend with their playing chicken in front of his train, despite him sounding the horn.
He has a warning for them: trains only stop for genuine reasons.
"If someone's in the way, they'll get run over."
Brutal death part of job for train drivers
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