We’d rather pick up your phone than what’s left of you - rail safety campaign launched

The State Government has launched a gritty campaign for Rail Safety Week that urges passengers to contact a Transperth guard rather than trying to retrieve lost belongings such as mobile phones from the tracks.

Transport Minister Dean Nalder said the Stay Off The Tracks campaign had been rolled out on the Armadale train line and would be expanded to other lines to spread the safety message.

In 2014-15, there were five incidents (death, serious injury or significant damage) and 33 near misses on the Transperth rail network.

All activity is monitored by the Public Transport Authority's closed-circuit television system, regarded as the best in Australia for public transport.  It has 12,000 cameras, including 1,700 which are checked all day, every day in the PTA's central monitoring room.

"That absent-minded decision to jump down on to the tracks to pick up a dropped phone or rush through a closing pedestrian gate because we're late for a meeting, could cause serious injury and have life changing consequences," Mr Nalder said.

The campaign posters will be rolled out across the Transperth network on pedestrian crossings, fencing, station platforms, seats and walls.  One poster shows a one-armed basketballer after a rail accident.  Another says: 'Our CCTV cameras can see the pimples on your face. Imagine how easily we can see you crossing the tracks.'  The third says simply: 'We'd rather pick up your phone than what's left of you.'

The posters aim to educate passengers about alternatives to risky behaviour - such as calling a transit officer instead of retrieving a dropped phone - to make them think about the physical and emotional consequences of being hit by a train, and to deter antisocial behaviour like graffiti.

It is part of the Public Transport Authority's Right Track program.

"Today marks the start of the 10th annual Rail Safety Week.  I would encourage everyone who uses our public transport network, or interacts with railway infrastructure to consider how they can be mindful of their actions," the Minister said.

Fact File

• Stay Off The Tracks campaign coincides with Rail Safety Week from August 10-16
• For more information, visit www.righttrack.wa.gov.au