BHP crew 'fixed' the wrong train
Preliminary report on runaway train in Western Australia finds that a crew sent to repair the vehicle worked on the wrong one
Melbourne — BHP Group’s runaway iron ore train saga has taken another twist. A preliminary report into 2018’s calamity in the remote Australian outback has found a rail maintenance crew sent to help the faulty freight train inadvertently worked on the wrong vehicle. The 2.9km-long train subsequently took off unaccompanied and had to be deliberately derailed after travelling uncontrolled for about 91km towards Port Hedland, at speeds touching 162km/h. The world’s biggest mining company suspended part of its iron ore railroad in Western Australia for five days and lost about 4-million tons of output. The November 5 2018 incident began after a problem with an on-board communications system triggered an emergency braking system, prompting the driver to get off to make checks, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said on Tuesday in an interim report. As the driver made an inspection and manually applied handbrakes from the front of the train, a controller dispatched a maintenance gang ...
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