He's no longer haunted by flashbacks, but former train guard Lionel Renata still remembers a big Wellington train smash in vivid detail, 30 years later.
"I was standing just beside the driver's cab and looked up and knew we weren't going to stop," Mr Renata, now 75, said yesterday. "It was extremely scary at the time."
Mr Renata was the guard on the Porirua commuter train on October 17, 1979, when it ploughed into a stationary Taita train in the Wellington railway yards, injuring 44 people.
An eyewitness told The Evening Post the Porirua train was thrown in the air by the force of the collision, hitting overhead wires and nearly keeling on to its side, before landing upright off the tracks.
The crash happened after driver Les Colvin drove through an orange signal – indicating there might be an obstruction on the tracks ahead – and was unable to stop in time when he spotted the stationary unit.
Mr Renata said his training took over as soon as he realised a collision was inevitable. "I reached over and slammed the emergency brake on and screamed out to the passengers to brace themselves."
He was knocked out in the crash and was one of five people injured seriously enough to be admitted to Wellington Hospital. "Next thing I knew I'm not waking up until half past five that afternoon."
He was in hospital for about a fortnight and wore a neck brace for several more weeks.
He had to battle nervousness when he eventually returned to work, he said. "It took a couple of trips to settle back into what I was doing, because for a while you get flashbacks."
Mr Renata worked for New Zealand Railways for another eight years before being made redundant in the late 1980s.
He has lost touch with Mr Colvin, who pleaded guilty to one charge of injuring a commuter in the crash and was fined $500. Mr Colvin was badly hurt in the crash and was not disciplined by New Zealand Railways.
After another train collision in the yards in 1980, which killed two people and injured 43, the government launched an independent inquiry into both crashes.
Wellington District Court judge Max Willis, who headed the inquiry, recommended a new signalling system for the Wellington railway yards as a result of his investigation
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/2973177/Guard-knew-train-wasn-t-going-to-stop
