Waterfall Train CrashPrint Page

Plaque commemorates the seven people who died in 2003 when the Tangara train crashed into an embankment near Waterfall station.

On 31 January 2003 at approximately 7:14 am, a four car Outer Suburban Tangara passenger train, designated G7 and travelling from Sydney Central railway station to Port Kembla, left the track at high speed and overturned approximately 1.9 kilometres south of Waterfall railway station. The train driver and six passengers were killed. The train guard and the remaining 41 passengers suffered injuries ranging from minor to severe.

At the Special Commission of Enquiry, the Commissioner concluded that the mechanism of the accident was a high speed rollover. The train was travelling at approximately 117 km/h as it entered the curve on which it derailed. The speed limit at that point was 60 km/h. Information presented led the Commissioner to find that the train driver suffered a sudden incapacitating heart attack at the controls of the train. An operational data logger was fitted to the train but was not operational at the time of the accident. Emergency response to the accident was made difficult by inaccurate information and lack of knowledge about access gates and tracks.
 

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