Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk once again about the dire need to address regional road safety. I've previously spoken about the need to seal and widen roads across my electorate of Durack that have presented serious safety concerns, and I've been pleased to have successfully advocated for many vital upgrades.

Today, however, I'd like to focus on a longstanding issue where progress unfortunately has not been made. What I'm talking about is the necessity to improve level-crossing safety through better train illumination. Between 1 July 2014 and 31 December 2022, across Australia's level crossings there were 7,839 near hits, 322 collisions, 39 fatalities and 49 serious injuries. These numbers are a stark reminder of the urgent need for improved safety measures. Currently 80 per cent of Australia's 23,000 railway crossings lack warning lights, which are crucial for trains to be adequately lit to prevent accidents. This is an issue that has impacted far too many families.

On 8 July 2000, Christian Jensen and his friends Jess Broad and Hillary Smith all lost their lives when their vehicle was hit by an unlit train in the WA Wheatbelt. A coronial inquest into the accident found that no-one in the car had seen the train approach, due to an absence of train lighting and warning signs on approach to the crossing. The 2001 inquest recommended all locomotives be fitted with external lighting, in addition to ditch lighting, to effectively warn motorists of their approach. These recommendations were never legislated by the government despite poor visibility of trains being an exhaustively documented contributing factor in this accident and others around Australia.

Lara Jensen, the sister of Christian, has, along with other affected families, been advocating for these changes for decades. Their lived experiences and these tragedies highlight the human cost of inadequate train illumination. In Australia there is no legal requirement for trains to be lit to a particular standard. In contrast, oversized trucks are required by law to be fitted with flashing beacon lights, and all trailers must be fitted with mandatory side lighting. Last year Lara, as a spokesperson for the Improve Train Lighting And Passive Level Crossing Safety group, wrote to Minister King, calling on the government to legislate lighting standards.

I'd like to bring to the attention of the House that soon there will be a petition launched to parliament requesting the House to immediately implement legislation requiring rotating beacons and side lighting on locomotives and rolling stock to improve safety and reduce preventable accidents and fatalities at railway crossings. Any action that can prevent loss of life must be considered, and I'd like to thank Lara Jensen and her family for continuing on this crusade.