By Ruza Zivkusic
AS THE body of the man hit by a train lay on the railway crossing in St Albans, longstanding St Albans crossing campaigner and St Albans Traders Association secretary Asip Demiri dialled the number of the MP for Derrimut, Telmo Languiller, to inform him about the incident.
The call went through to Mr Languiller’s electorate officer and Brimbank City councillor Costas Socratous.
Clearly upset by the incident and furious that little had been done to improve the safety of railway crossings in Brimbank, Mr Demiri asked Cr Socratous whether Mr Languiller was aware of what had happened in his electorate.
“The guy is actually dead now, right now. Since Telmo Languiller has been the local Member of Parliament there were eight people lying dead on the level crossings,” Mr Asip told Cr Socratous.
“This is Main Rd East, in St Albans; it is part of your electorate. Do you know where that is?” Mr Demiri said.
When Star contacted Mr Languiller for comment last Thursday, more than seven hours after the death of the man, Mr Languiller said he was unaware of what had happened and therefore was unable to comment at the time.
“At this point without the knowledge of what actually happened, my comment is that I’m terribly sorry what actually happened and I’m sure the community is too,” Mr Languiller said.
Mr Asip told Star: “Telmo Languiller is the invisible member for the area, he should be holding his head in shame today because he does not know that in his electorate there’s been more deaths than in any electorate in the state.
“Maybe he was comfortable in his trendy suburbs of Middle Park and he doesn’t particularly need to know too much about the local area that he’s getting paid to represent,” he added.
St Albans Traders Association president Sebastian Agricola said it was only a matter of time before another death occurred at the rail crossing.
“We said at the time the three people killed at Furlong Rd (in 2004) that there was going to be one here eventually,” Mr Agricola said.
“What more can we say? How many more deaths and how much do you place in terms of money on the lives of people here?” he added.
“We’ve seen this all before and we will see it again unless they (the State Government) put this underground.”
“One day it will be even more disastrous, we’ll have the train hit the car in the middle of the intersection amongst all the shoppers and people crossing and then God help us all,” he added.
In April, coroner is due to deliver his findings of the death of three people killed on Furlong Rd.
A State Government spokesperson told Star last month that the issue of level crossing at St Albans was being addressed through its St Albans Strategy, which involves building an underpass at the Taylors Rd crossing and diverting traffic away from the centre of St Albans.
