“I think it’s very special that people risk their lives to save time for a few seconds,” says train driver Jan Slaats. He is responding to the near-accident on Sunday at the railway crossing in Rijen. A young cyclist was able to jump off his bicycle just in time, otherwise he would have ended up under the train. His bicycle did not survive the collision.
Machinist Jan Slaats has been working as a machinist in Den Bosch for 14 years. He helps colleagues when they have an accident on the railway. He then goes along with the first ride that the driver makes again after an accident.
“Almost every driver has experienced an accident or near miss.”
“I then check whether the driver is comfortable and relaxed on the track. If that is not the case, I go along more often. In fact, you already know when he leaves the first station whether things are going well.”
“Almost every driver has experienced an accident or a near accident on the track”, Jan knows. “The most dangerous are the transitions near a station. Then a traveler sees his slow train waiting on the platform and quickly crosses. At that moment an express train can rush past from the other side at 130 kilometers per hour.”
“I don’t know why people ignore alarm signals and put their lives on the line.”
Such a near miss can also have a lot of impact and not just on the driver. “Such a driver sees something popping up in the corner of his eye, or worse, sees it coming. He then presses the brake hard, but only stops after 500 meters. Your heart then skips ten times.”
Passengers, but certainly the conductor walking around, suddenly gets a push because of the sudden speed that decreases. “Everything is on edge with the conductor”, Jan continues. “He often goes outside to see what is going on. That is not a pleasant job.”
“Oh dear, another colleague with a heart attack richer.”
Over the past 5 years, there have been between 1 and 8 accidents on railways in Brabant. There is an erratic trend in the number of accidents. A spokesperson for Prorail has the impression that it is becoming safer but also busier, which makes it difficult to draw a conclusion from the figures. Our province still has one unguarded railway crossing and it is located on private property. In total there are 209 level crossings in Brabant.
When Jan read about the near accident in Rijen, he thought; “Oh dear, it’s that time again. Oh dear, another colleague with a heart attack experience richer. Of course it is a relief that it ended well, especially when you read that it concerns a young child. There is always something some anger about the stupidity of the road user. Ultimately, a collision is something that nobody wants.”
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