Rail Safety Award For Helen Clark

29 October 2013

Rail Safety Award For Helen Clark

The inaugural Louise Cairns Award for Contribution to Rail Safety in New Zealand was presented to University of Waikato PhD student Helen Clark at the TrackSAFE launch at Parliament on October 15.

The launch marked the formal amalgamation between the Chris Cairns Foundation and Australian Harm Prevention Charity TrackSAFE.

“I felt very honoured to receive the award,” says Helen, who received a certificate and a $5000 grant that she will use towards her PhD. “It was completely out of the blue and I was very pleased and excited.”

Helen is also a course co-ordinator and sessional assistant at the University, which involves day-to-day administration and liaising with students for the paper. She also tutors classes for the courses she is involved in.

Helen is researching the factors affecting the perception of a train’s travelling speed. Her study builds on her Master’s research which found that observers consistently perceive trains as travelling slower than smaller vehicles even when a train is travelling at the same speed or faster - a visual illusion of speed due to its size.

Helen’s PhD study will investigate why this occurs and consider what potential strategies could be used to combat or reduce this visual illusion, by exploring both educational avenues and physical modifications to road/rail intersection junctions.

The Louise Cairns Award was established in memory of Chris Cairns’ sister Louise who was killed when a cement truck collided with a passenger train at a Rolleston level crossing in 1993. Two other women died in the collision and eight people were seriously injured.

TrackSAFE was established in Australia in 2012 and is based on the model of the Chris Cairns foundation. It aims to reduce incidents on the rail network resulting from suicide and reckless behaviour. In doing so it strives to create a better workplace and minimise trauma caused to rail employees who witness near collisions, injuries and fatalities whilst simply doing their job.

Chairman of the TrackSAFE NZ Board Mr Jim Quinn says the Chris Cairns Foundation has been a successful initiative and the education and awareness campaigns run over the past six years have contributed to an overall decline in railway deaths and injuries in New Zealand by twenty per cent since 2002.

“However we can’t afford to be complacent and let this issue fall off the agenda,” Mr Quinn says. “One level crossing collision between a fully loaded passenger train and a heavy vehicle could be potentially catastrophic and every near collision, incident and fatality can also cause severe and lasting trauma for affected rail employees.”

ENDS

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