Footage showing a woman in New Zealand almost being hit by a train has prompted Auckland Transport to warn pedestrians to be more aware when crossing tracks.
According to Auckland Transport, the newer electric trains on their rail system, rolled out in 2015, are faster but quieter than the older trains. They are appealing to people to be more aware of their surroundings when attempting to cross at road level.
In the footage, a man wearing a backpack finishes crossing just as the warning lights begin to flash when three more people, including two people walking a dog, can be seen hurrying across the crossing despite the flashing lights.
After a few seconds, a woman wearing a pink jacket approaches the crossing and looks to her right as she walks across. The woman is on the tracks when she turns to her left as the train quickly approaches, jumping out of the way and narrowly avoiding being hit.
One Twitter user questioned how difficult it would be to put in an automatic gate while another wondered why the woman would disregard the current signal system.
@AklTransport how hard would it be to put an automatic gate on this? People can easily not be aware of their surroundings
— Cameron Pitches (@cam_140) April 7, 2017
@AklTransport I can't believe four people all completely disregarded the signal system. You may be in a hurry, but it's not worth your life.
— Nick Sarten (@NickSarten) April 7, 2017
Auckland Transport encourages pedestrians to always wait for alarm bells and flashing lights to stop and to look both ways before crossing.
