It has been more than 25 years since her brother lost his life in a tragic railway accident.
But Lara Jensen is hopeful new legislation to be introduced to WA parliament will save lives and prevent other families suffering similar tragedies.
The WA opposition has announced it will introduce a bill to legislate mandatory train lighting, a safety measure that aims to save lives at passive rail crossings across Western Australia.
Jensen’s brother Christian was killed in the 2000 Yarramony Road disaster, where three young West Australians lost their lives at an unlit rail crossing in the Wheatbelt.
“There is still no legal requirement for trains to be held to a particular standard in 2026 and our families paid the ultimate price for that in July 2000 when my brother and his two friends were struck and killed,” Jensen said.
“Mandating proper lighting on trains is long overdue. It’s a simple reform that will save lives, particularly at the hundreds of passive crossings across WA, where motorists rely on seeing a train in time to stop.
“They were three really special country people, and I’m a proud rural woman, and I believe that just because we are rural families living in quite scarce regions, we should still expect basic safety measures.
“We should still expect safety and visibility lighting on land’s largest vehicle. That surely should not be too much to ask of our government in 2026.”
On July 8, 2000, Jess Broad, 18, Hilary Smith, 19, and Christian Jensen, 20, were killed when their car was struck by a fully loaded grain train at an unlit, passive level crossing near Jennacubbine. The crossing had only a Give Way sign – no flashing lights and no boom gates.
WA Nationals leader Shane Love said the bill would be introduced to parliament this week.
“The state government has the ability to introduce it through legislation. Now that opportunity will be with them,” he said.
“Then we’ll sit and wait for it to be debated in Safety Week in August, so plenty of time for the government to digest what’s in the bill, and to come out with their reasons if they’re going to support it, or if they’re not going to support it, and explain why they took that approach.”
Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the government would not commit to the proposal until it had seen the legislation in parliament.
“All train crossings have now at least a minimum of a stop sign. That’s an initiative we undertook, where we’re replacing passive level crossings with active level crossings in relation to train lighting,” she said.
“We’ve been working directly with CBH and the line operators to trial train lighting, and that’s been happening.
“We’ve got the beacon lighting at the front of the trains, and now we’re also trialling other lighting, which is on the side of carriages.”
Jensen said the installation of correct lighting on trains would cost around $20,000 per vehicle, and that the responsibility for rail safety was with the state government.
“A new locomotive costs $6 million,” she said.
“One of the requirements with the rail safety national law is that rail operators must be operating as safely as reasonably practicable – $20,000 per train is reasonably practicable.
“This is not a political football, it is a public safety issue. How many more people have to needlessly lose their lives in order to get this across the line?”
