1 Executive summary
What happened
1.1 At about 0340 on Saturday 7 December 2019, two family members left their home in Hamilton by car to begin a rostered shift at their place of employment in Morrinsville.
1.2 The car journey to Morrinsville took them through an area of roadworks near the intersection of State Highway 26 and Piako Road, four kilometres southwest of their
destination.
1.3 The vehicle the two people were in was stopped briefly by a traffic controller holding a stop/go sign at the southern end of the roadworks while opposing traffic cleared the area. Their car was the first in a queue of cars waiting for the go signal. Once the opposing traffic was clear, the traffic controller moved the stop sign to the go position and the cars began moving through the work area towards Morrinsville.
1.4 A short time after the queue of cars had proceeded past the traffic controller, a train travelling from Tauranga towards Hamilton entered the section of track that automatically activated the level crossing warning alarms.
1.5 The driver of the car did not stop before the level crossing and proceeded on to the railway line directly in front of the approaching train.
1.6 The train and car collided, resulting in the two car occupants suffering fatal injuries.
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