ST ALBANS residents experienced traumatic scenes last week as they watched a man die, 50 minutes after he was hit by a train at the St Albans railway crossing, which locals want replaced with an underpass.
According to some witnesses, the 25-year-old man from Reservoir was screaming for oxygen as ambulance and police crew worked on saving his life.
Known locally as Wazza, the man was seen following his two friends, attempting to cross Main Road East while boom gates were coming down.
Cako Masic, from St Albans, said he was sitting and drinking coffee outside a cafe near the crossing, as the man and his two friends, a man and a woman, passed him while rushing towards the road.
“The ramp was going down but they approached the railway line and started crossing,” Mr Masic said.
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“One man managed to jump over the fence and the girl in a black dress walked around to the footpath.
“She managed to walk across and the man was just behind following her but the train hit him,” he said.
He said the man had failed to look around him for safety when crossing.
“It looked like the train got his legs, they were totally crushed,” Mr Masic said.
He said police arrived shortly afterwards but it took 10 minutes for the ambulance to attend.
Hundreds of people gathered at the safety fence near the railway line as ambulance crew attempted to save the man’s life.
Vlad Kovacevic and Mick Obradovic, both long-time friends of the dead man, said he grew up in St Albans but added that he “wasn’t that kind of a character to throw himself in front of the train”.
“He was a nice guy, he wasn’t a drug addict and he came from a good family,” Mr Kovacevic said.
“He worked in meatworks for a while but at the moment I don’t know what he was doing,” he added.
Constable Trevor Johnstone of Sunshine Police said the crossing’s lights and bells were working properly as an express train bound for Bendigo hit the man.
“He was still conscious when the ambulance turned up but he was severely injured,” Const Johnstone said.
“He had internal injuries to his lower body and he was screaming and moaning in pain,” he added.
A Connex spokeswoman said the accident, which occurred at 10.33am last Thursday, affected 16 Connex trains, and services were terminating from the Sunshine station.
It is the eighth railway crossing death in the West in the last seven years, following the death of tree people at the Furlong Rd rail crossing intersection in 2004.
