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Police have rejected suggestions that the driver of a car which crashed into a train in western Bay of Plenty, killing two of its occupants, was racing the train.
The car's driver, 20-year-old Keeley Jamieson, and her brother Ryan Jamieson, 22, both of Maketu, died following the crash on Te Tumu Rd, near State Highway 2 east of Te Puke about 4.47pm yesterday.
A 25-year-old male frontseat passenger, a friend of the siblings, was today discharged from Tauranga Hospital.
The train driver was uninjured but shaken and had been referred to Victim Support.
Toll Rail spokeswoman Sue Foley yesterday said an eyewitness told Toll that the car Ms Jamieson was driving had appeared to try to race over the level crossing as the train approached.
But Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, the officer in charge of road policing in the Western Bay, said nothing police investigators had seen to date backed this view up.
"From what we can see the car was travelling slowly," Mr Campion said.
"There's no evidence to suggest that speed was a contributing factor."
Mr Campion said all evidence suggested that warning bells were going at the crossing when the car and the train collided, and that the driver should have seen the train.
"There was ample visibility from the position the driver was coming from," he said.
Mr Campion said the nearby road intersection of Te Tumu Rd and State Highway 2 was regarded as a black spot, and the crossing could be a contributing factor to the intersection danger as there was only room between the crossing and the intersection for one truck and trailer unit.
However, in this case the car had turned left from SH2 into Te Tumu Rd and this should not have been a factor.
The inquiry had not been completed but preliminary investigations suggested the crash was caused by driver error, Mr Campion said.
Ontrack chief executive David George said he felt for the Jamieson family but said the crash was preventable.
"This was another example of a collision occurring where flashing lights and bells provided warning of an approaching train," he said.
"Our statistics tell us that over the last 10 years, almost 40 per cent of collisions at railway crossings occur where warning lights and bells are operating and approximately 13 per cent where half arm barriers theoretically block access to the crossing.
"The bottom line is that 50 per cent of collisions occur on crossings protected by some form of electronic warning device."
Mr George said 260 of the country's 1400 crossings were protected by barrier arms but Ontrack only had the budget to upgrade seven crossings a year.
"This means it will be many years before we get to the position that many would like to see," he said.
"In the meantime, we have no alternative but to try to change the devil-may-care approach of many road users."
A fatal crash involving a car and train happened at the same site about two years ago. Mr Campion said barrier arms would help at the site, as they would at every level crossing.
Eyewitnesses suggest Ms Jamieson drove over the level crossing and did not clear it before the train arrived. The car was crushed and spun into poles before coming to a halt beside the tracks.
The driver had slammed on the brakes and was frantically sounding his horn seconds before the collision, the Bay of Plenty Times reported.
- NZPA
