A one-year-old girl has died after being struck by a freight train in the tiny village of Baan Baa, near Narrabri in northern New South Wales. Emergency services were called to Baranbah Street at 7.50pm on Friday, where the toddler was treated by paramedics before being taken to hospital, where she later died.
Police were told the child was walking along the road when she was clipped by the train. Oxley Police District Superintendent David Cooper said the girl was playing with several other children at the time. “The parents were not in the immediate vicinity, but we are aware of where the parents were, and the supervision of the child is not in doubt,” he said. “Our understanding is that the child was just playing, this is a really tragic case of a child that had gone to play in a bad location.”
Superintendent Cooper confirmed that lights and boom gates were activated as the unladen freight train approached the level crossing. The train driver, a 22-year-old man, was not injured but was taken to hospital for mandatory testing. Cooper said the driver did not realise the train had struck the child until he was notified shortly after and immediately stopped the train. “There is no suggestion at all that the train driver had any negligence, and I feel for that young man as well,” he added.
Baan Baa is a small community of fewer than 50 families, located about 500km north-west of Sydney. NSW Premier Chris Minns described the incident as a “shocking, shocking death” and extended sympathies to the family. “Today is a moment to say the sympathies from everyone in NSW is with that family, what a terrible tragedy,” he said.
