KiwiRail incorrectly claims 85-year-old retiree's car sped through level crossing in front of train

Wednesday, 16 June 2021

Napier man Wayne Kirk on KiwiRail's mistake.

Jan Kirk is an 85-year-old retirement village resident in Tauranga who enjoys playing bridge and performing in the village choir.

So when her son Wayne received a letter from KiwiRail saying her car – registered in his name – had been caught zipping through an Auckland level crossing in front of a train and damaging a barrier arm, he was somewhat taken aback.

Wayne, who runs car dealerships in Hawke’s Bay, got the letter at the start of June. It said the car had been seen by the locomotive engineer, who recorded the registration number, at 7.55am on May 25 at the level crossing on Metcalfe Road in Ranui, Auckland.

Jan Kirk and her yellow Mitsubishi Mirage, wrongly identified by KiwiRail as having illegally zipped through a level crossing.

The letter said the engineer saw the car entering the level crossing illegally “whilst alarms, lights and barriers were activated and coming into contact with the barrier arm”. Emergency staff had to be called out and the line was subject to a speed restriction as a result of the incident, the letter said.

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The level crossing on Metcalfe Rd, Ranui, Auckland.

KiwiRail told Kirk it was still ascertaining the extent of damage and the costs incurred and advised him to forward the letter to his insurer as a claim against him was possible.

KiwiRail said the train was run by Transdev, which had cameras on the front of its trains, and if Kirk wanted to get video footage of the incident he could get it by requesting it through NZ Police by quoting the reference number provided.

KiwiRail told Kirk it took every incident at level crossings very seriously. (File pic)

There was no reference number on the letter.

“My poor old mum is ill and hasn’t been in the car for more than a month. It’s been sitting in the shed and Mum never drives to Auckland anyway. I rang her up and asked to check it was still there and the rego plates still on. It was all in order, so I tried to get in touch with KiwiRail to get the reference number, but of course they didn’t answer my emails,” he said.

So, Kirk went to the police directly and had them view the file. They were able to see that the locomotive engineer had recorded the car as being a charcoal MG.

Jan's car is a yellow 2021 Mitsubishi Mirage.

Wayne Kirk acknowledged KiwiRail’s apology, but wanted the organisation to learn from its mistake.

“All KiwiRail had to do was go to Carjam.co.nz and punch in the rego number and that would have shown them it was a completely different type of car,” he said.

“It makes me so bloody angry that they’re thrown all these accusations. Someone from KiwiRail eventually called me back. I asked her why they didn’t check the footage first. She told me this actually happens quite often. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

“I was seething wild. I said I wanted a written apology and an investigation. And I told her I wondered how many others this would have happened to. I wasted a whole day on sorting it out,” he said.

“Not to mention the effect on my poor old mum. She was in a real spin about it. She thought it was scam,” he said.

He sent KiwiRail an invoice for $3450 for the time he had to spend on resolving the matter.

“I knew it was unlikely they'd ever pay, but I wanted to send a message. If they had paid I’d have given the lot to Diabetes NZ,” he said.

On Monday Kirk received a second letter from KiwiRail confirming the wrong car had been identified and apologising for any inconvenience caused.

“KiwiRail’s Incident Recovery team deals with hundreds of third-party level crossing incidents each year. Due to the nature of the incidents we look into, we rely on information reported via the train driver, or members of the public,” wrote KiwiRail’s incident recovery manager Emma Cowell.

“Unfortunately, in this case the registration number had been incorrectly noted at the time and the verification of the description of the vehicle when processed was in this case overlooked.”

Cowell added that KiwiRail wouldn’t be paying Kirk’s invoice.

Kirk said he acknowledged the apology and “I‘d really like to think they would learn from this and it didn’t happen again”.

KiwiRail acting executive general manager operations Paul Ashton said the organisation relied on information reported via the train driver involved, “who was in this case a Transdev driver, or members of the public”.

“We were in the process of verifying that the description of the vehicle matched the registration number, but before that process was completed, Mr Kirk was mistakenly sent a letter advising him that a claim against him was possible. We apologise for that error and have already apologised to Mr Kirk,” Ashton said.

“To the best of our knowledge there have been three similar errors among the 429 similar incidents dealt with over the last 12 months. We have now added in an additional step to provide a further check to ensure the registration and description of the vehicle match and will continue to review our processes,” he said.

“We are still in the process of ascertaining the cost of the incident, and in identifying the owner of the vehicle involved,” he said.