KEY POINTS:
A 25-year-old man believed to be taking a short cut across train tracks in Lower Hutt underwent emergency surgery yesterday after being hit by an oncoming train.
The accident happened at 2.30pm, just south of the Hutt line's Wingate Station.
The man was last night in intensive care with serious chest, leg and pelvic injuries.
Five people have been killed in accidents on New Zealand railtracks this year.
They include the parents of 5-year-old Reef Coombes, whose car collided with a train at Ohingaiti near Taihape last month, and a brother and sister who died after their car collided with a train in the Bay of Plenty.
Neighbours told the Herald on Sunday the short cut the man would have taken was "well-used", saving a walk of about 100m to the proper footbridge across the tracks.
The victim was hit by a northbound train carrying 18 passengers, who were transferred to a shuttle service. The double line was closed to trains for two hours.
Jason Stevens, who has lived by the station for 29 years, saw the aftermath of the accident and was surprised the man survived the impact.
"I saw the fire crews carrying plastic bags, and I thought they would have been full of bits," he said.
Stevens said the train tracks could not be seen from the footpath because of trees and hedges.
But there was a gap in a wire fence that authorities had repeatedly closed up over the years to stop trespassers seeking a short cut.
"They fix it quite regularly but people just keep doing it," said Stevens.
He said the man would only have had less a metre between him and the tracks after heading through bushes.
Ontrack spokesman Kevin Ranshaw said: "Railway tracks aren't a public thoroughfare."
