Where does the responsibility lie?
Queensland - 24/12/2009
Picture this. You’re driving a train – not just any train – a suburban passenger train with hundreds of people on board – most of them heading to a football match. You’re in charge of getting them safely to their destination in a timely manner.
As you go about your duties, you are advised of rocks being thrown at another train ahead, shattering a window.
As a seasoned driver, you know that a rock strike on the windscreen of a moving train could result in it shattering and projecting glass into the cabin. As you approach the area of the reported rock attacks, you pull the blind down a bit, just in case a rock strikes the windscreen.
After driving through the area with no sign of rocks or kids, you go back to driving the train normally. You’re alongside a major freeway so you dip your lights as a courtesy to drivers.
You’ve done everything right, haven’t you? Not according to a Queensland State Coroner who recently found that these actions were "dangerous" – to the point of recommending disciplinary action against the driver. This was part of the coroner’s findings in the inquest into the Inquest into the deaths of Hayden Duncan, Glen Duncan and Reginald Fisher. (Warning – some details are graphic in nature.)
The coroner made little mention of the fact that the kids should not have been on the track – or that the parents should have known where their children were.
Was it reasonable to expect the driver to perceive that the children could have been on the rail line and not see or hear the train approach? I don’t think so.
What has our society turned into – where everyone is responsible for everyone else’s actions? Large organisations like Queensland Rail must have policies in place to account for idiots and delinquents.
It’s time that "personal responsibility" was taken into consideration and that "victims" were held accountable for their own actions.
| Others' Views: Based on 19 votes |
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| Totally agree: | 
(84.2%) |
| Mostly agree: | 
(10.5%) |
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(0%) |
| Totally disagree: |
(5.3%) |