One of my mates has a house that back onto the line. Rhe last time I was there she suggested going for a walk along it, which never happened. Seems to be common enough thing to go for a walk on the railway line in Tipperary

Lamb, I doubt this was just common in Tipperary or Limerick where my mam grew up. Children that grew up alongside railways would have more familiarity with them, hence maybe why they might not see the dangers as readily.

It’s still a monster of a machine to come roaring down the tracks at a little girl God love her her family And the Train Driver, hope the child will recover and the train driver is well too very sad for all concerned

William this is a horendous statement to make. If a child got onto property of irish rail because of that property being unsecure the blame lies with irish rail or those reponsible for its security. It is also possible that a small defect on any equipment being used in the operation of the train may have led to the accident being unavoidable & only a proper independent investigation will establish this.

Michael, I can only comment on my knowledge of the railways. In the UK representatives from both the police and railway authorities made visits for lectures and slides regularly to schools, youth clubs etc to publicise the dangers of playing or being on railway property. There isn’t just the dangers of being knocked down by a train, but also electrocution from overhead cables or ‘third rail’ power and a whole list of other dangers. Children were also often responsible for throwing stones at passing trains or even dropping a lump of concrete or house brick off an overhead bridge. Something akin to what sometimes happens on motorways. My late Father knew several train drivers who’d received serious head injuries and one even killed by such pranks. I’m afraid he would have had little sympathy for any child. A similar project could be introduced [if needed] here in Ireland; perhaps using something like ‘ Thomas the Tank Engine ‘ for very young children. If you’re not trespassing on railway property in the first place, then you should be in no danger …….unless the bloody thing crashes ofcourse!

Because your first comment was questioning her reason for being there. You sounded insensitive. Was it that hard to work out?

Never questions red thumbs. They only lead to more!!!

And questioning the reason why a young girl was on a railway track, putting her in harms way and leading to an accident that could have been fatal is insensitive?

Explain what is insensitive for asking an obvious question . Parents need to be more responsible . There has been many cases where parents stupidly has resulted in the loss of the life of a young child . Do you think that’s acceptable ?

Incident happened 7:30pm, now 5:00am, is 9-10hrs really that bad when most of it is night time?

Well there must be SOMETHING. I mean contact the hospital, try and find out something about her condition etc.

Why don’t you contact the hospital? I bet they are going to tell you to fuck off if you are not a family member.

Hi John,

Susan Ryan posted this morning’s update after your next comment but just to add that your comment was posted at 5am Irish time. The initial story was posted at about 9pm. Between 9pm and 5am (not 15 hours), no further details were available to us.

And as Susan noted, hospitals do not give details about patients’ conditions to journalists.

Thanks,
Sinead

Hi Sinéad,

Thanks for the follow-up. It’s appreciated :-) I saw Susan’s note below.
Yeah when I looked at the story I thought the time displayed was the Irish time it was posted, not my local time. I’m on -7GMT.
Sorry that my initial comment came off so, well so sh*tty!

It’s unlikely that the accident was caused by one or led to one.

Maybe unlikely but in an rta involving injuries vehicles are inspected regardless of the facts of the accident. I know of a recent suicide caught on cctv & the vehicle was taken away & inspected. Are irish rail above this?

Hi Michael,

No further details were available from Irish Rail at the time of writing but an investigation is underway. We’ll have updates in the morning.

Thanks,
Sinead

It will have been checked thoroughly on site and removed to a workshop for further stringent checking and tests as well as removing and checking the “black box” which records everything the train does including sounding the horn. There is always very thorough investigations by the rail accident investigation unit for even the smallest of incidents.

Who carries out this investigation & tests the equipment.

Hi John,
Just to note that Irish hospitals no longer provide information to journalists about a patient’s condition as a matter of procedure. An update on the situation can be found here: http://jrnl.ie/382588

Thanks Susan!