Crossing, visibility blamed I felt like I’d been hit by a train, says crash victim

IT WAS like a movie: Jovan Burns struggled out of unconsciousness and found himself transported from the driver’s seat of his car on to its crumpled boot.

Then he remembered he’d just been hit by a train.

Burns, 21, has spoken about the moment his Mitsubishi Lancer and the Capital Connection commuter train collided on Thursday night – and how it felt to walk away from the crash almost uninjured.

Police were called about 6.25pm to the accident at Te Horo, north of Wellington, on a private road opposite Te Waka Rd, off State Highway 1.

The next day Burns said he woke up ‘‘pretty bloody sore’’ with a sore back, chest and shoulders. He had taken the day off his job working on a road construction crew.

Despite the pain, he felt lucky to have survived the crash that knocked him out.

‘‘I was wearing my seatbelt, no airbags went off, and then I woke up on the boot.

‘‘ I was thrown back through the window, I wake up, and I’m on the boot.’’

The first thing he thought about was his brother, Julian Burns, 25, who was his passenger.

‘‘I dragged myself out, I don’t really remember that bit, and then made sure he was OK.’’

Julian had been flung out of the car and was on the grass at the side of the road, with two swollen ankles. For a moment, the pair just looked at each other, ‘‘and it was like wow’’, Jovan said.

Jovan Burns at the private crossing opposite Te Waka Rd, in Te Horo.

He blamed the crash on a combination of bad conditions and the nature of the crossing.

‘‘It was a bad night, my windows were fogged up, an uncontrolled crossing, no lights, and also the train was coming from my blind spot as well.’’

Sergeant Slade Sturmey, of Otaki, said Burns was breathtested after the crash and returned a negative result.

Police were still investigating the crash, and it could be up to a week before a decision was made on whether charges would be laid, he said.

Immediately

after

the

crash, Burns was tended by ambulance staff, who told him he should go to hospital for observation after being knocked unconscious.

But he said his head was all right and he decided to go back to his Te Horo home instead.

Yesterday, when he first woke up, he could hardly move, but his body loosened up as the day went on.

‘‘I felt like I’d been hit by a train – I think that’s where the expression came from.’’

The brothers appear to have been lucky that the Capital Connection was not travelling at the top speed allowed on that stretch of track.

KiwiRail spokesman Ron Murray said the train was allowed to travel up to 100kmh, but had just come through a low-speed zone because of repairs to the rails before the crossing.

‘‘It’s fortunate that wasn’t at full speed.’’

The locomotive had a few crumpled bits but was still in service, and was running to Taranaki yesterday, Murray said.

‘‘These are pretty solid beasts so it takes a fair bit to damage them . . . the loco generally doesn’t leave much of the car and, in this case, the car’s generally intact.’’

the

train