On Monday 21 July, Rail Safety Awareness Week kicked off in Rolleston, Christchurch. This week aims to get the message across that railways and level crossings can be dangerous when safety precautions are not taken and that awareness needs to be raised to save lives.

Rolleston was chosen as the location for the launch as Chris Cairns’ sister and two other young women lost their lives at a level crossing situated there.

Rolleston Primary School was visited by The Chris Cairns Foundation on Monday 21 July to promote rail safety and awareness, and received great support from not only the staff at the school, but also the children.

On Tuesday 22 July, Chris Cairns visited Huntly College, giving a speech to the children about rail safety. A train driver from Toll NZ also spoke and emphasized the danger that can come when you disrespect the train tracks and do not act in a safe manner around them. 

“It is extremely important to get the message out to the kids that they need to be switched on around railway tracks. Hopefully they will listen and will not have to go through what my family and I have been through” Chris Cairns stated.

Joined by children from the local primary school, Chris travelled to Ngaruawahia to unveil the foundation’s latest billboard. A morning tea was held at the Ngaruawahia Primary School which was attended by local police and council representatives. The Foundation is really appreciative of the support these people have given to rail safety.

Chris Cairns then took an afternoon train ride in Auckland to help drive home the message about safe behaviour near railway lines to school students. Chris talked to the hundreds of students from several schools that catch the 3.24pm service from Boston Rd to Swanson about the dangers of trespassing on the rail corridor.

The week continued with a function at Parliament on Wednesday 23 July. Guest Speakers at the function included Chris Cairns, Hon Harry Duynhoven (Minister of Transport), Kevin Ramshaw from ONTRACK and Joe Garbellini from KiwiRail. This function was organized to get the rail community together and discuss the future of what can be done to reduce the number of incidents at railways.

Rail Safety Awareness Week ended on Sunday 27 July.

For images of the week please click here.