Safety improvements urged at railway crossing

There have been pleas to improve the safety of a rail crossing where a beloved bus driver was killed.

June Eynon, 63, died after the bus she was driving struck the side of a moving train at an intersection 2 kilometres from Bunnythorpe, on Wednesday. Many of the 40 passengers had to be assisted from the bus, among them Feilding High School students.

Seven passengers required hospital care forminor injuries.

While bus commuters have been paying tribute to Eynon on social media, those who live near the crossing at Railway Rd and Clevely Line are demanding safety improvements.

‘‘It is a bad intersection to navigate for cars, let alone buses,’’ said resident Robyn Curtis, who has lived in Parrs Rd, which runs parallel to Clevely Line, for 41⁄ years.

2

‘‘The whole crossing is just dangerous, and I am really cross about it.’’

Eynon had worked for Uzabus for four years. At a ceremony at the crash site on Wednesday night, husband Henry Eynon said it was a blessing no children had been seriously hurt. It would have been June’s one wish that they be protected.

Numerous tributes on Facebook have described June Eynon as a friendly and compassionate woman.

‘‘She was an amazing bus driver. She loved her job and all the kids she took with her,’’ posted Tayla Perenara.

Curtis said she was upset and angry when she learned of the accident, and the bus driver’s death.

She had complained to Palmerston North City Council several times about the absence of a turning lane for traffic crossing the railway and the 100kmh speed limit being too high. ‘‘There is such limited space to get up [to] the railway to get over the tracks themselves ... There needs to at least be a turning lane but it is falling on deaf ears.’’

First responder Kevin McCord, who lives near the crossing and was with Eynon when she died, said the road was horrendous.

Palmerston North man Ian Franklin said the hazards extended beyond the intersection. For motorists in Railway Rd, traffic continuing on Clevely Line would fly out from the left-hand side before a sharp right, leaving Railway Rd traffic going straight ahead stranded with nowhere to go.

Police, Uzabus and the Transport Accident Investigation Commission are investigating the crash.

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF A roadside tribute to June Eynon, the bus driver who died at a railway crossing near Palmerston North after a collision with a train on Wednesday.