New Zealand Herald

Huntly, New Zealand

Glenys Cribb was killed as she tried to escape the train.

Six adult children lost their 56-year-old mother when she tried in vain to get to her feet as a train rounded the corner on its way into Huntly.

But Glenys Ngareta Cribb was too drunk.

As the train straightened out of the gradual bend and its headlights shone down the tracks, driver Noel Wilcock suddenly became aware of someone in his path.

He desperately sounded the horn and saw Mrs Cribb "start to stand up very slowly".

The Huntly coroner's court yesterday heard that on the night of May 3, Mrs Cribb attempted to escape the impact. But she staggered and seconds later she was hit by the side of the lead engine. She was killed instantly, suffering massive head injuries.

"It's a lesson," her son Billy Cribb said outside the court yesterday. "As kids we crossed that area all the time. But where she crossed is not a legal crossing. For me, I don't blame Toll Rail at all."

During the hearing, Mr Cribb stood to apologise for the emotional trauma caused to the train driver, and thanked the Police, Victim Support, and the local funeral director for the help and support they had given his family.

According to evidence given to Police Constable Nicola Carrick, by the time Mrs Cribb boarded the bus she was "inebriated", a state that was not unusual for her.

A toxicology and pathologist's report showed she had a blood-alcohol reading of 290, and this was compared to the legal drink-driving limit of 80.

Sister-in-law Anne Pinnell spoke of a lifetime of domestic violence that she believed had over the "past five years" culminated in an alcohol problem.

But Mrs Cribb had been a "good manager and an excellent gardener and always tried her best for her family". She questioned what "New Zealand statistic" her sister-in-law would come under - citing fatal railway accidents, alcohol-related deaths, and the "statistic I think she should come under," domestic violence.

Coroner Bob McDermott allowed Ontrack spokesman Rex Polglase to speak.

Mr Polglase said he wanted to reiterate Toll Rail's concern about people wandering on to tracks. Railways were not public property, and it was illegal to be on tracks that were not designated official crossings, he said.

The message was especially pertinent because it coincided with "rail safe week".

Two double fatalities at rail crossings in the past month have highlighted increasing concern about driver behaviour at level crossings, but statistics show a high number of pedestrians and cyclists are also killed or injured in collisions with trains.

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