Brave nurse a rail hero after track fall

A student nurse has saved the life of a man who fell on to the tracks at a Brisbane train station just minutes before a train was due to arrive.

SIX months of nursing training paid off for Kay Seymour yesterday when she put her own life on the line to save a man who fell on to train tracks at Wooloowin station on Brisbane's northside.

The 56-year-old man had become disoriented as a result of seizures and stepped off the platform just before 8am, with the train due at 8.04am.

Ms Seymour, 42, said she heard someone yell out "He's on the tracks" and her nursing training just kicked in.

"I tried to get a verbal response from him at first, but when that didn't work I said to another lady 'I'm going to have to get on the tracks'," Ms Seymour said.

FIRST RESPONDER: Trainee nurse Kay Seymour rushed to the rescue after a -year-old man fell off the platform at Wooloowin. Picture: Glenn Barnes

"In my head I thought I've got at least six minutes. I knew I had time to get him off."

BRAVE RESCUE: Nurse jumps onto tracks to save man

As Ms Seymour spoke calmly to the man to get him to stand up, Queensland Rail customer service officer Jill Lyten took action to halt any approaching trains.

EMERGENCY: The man steps off the platform and falls onto the train tracks at Wooloowin station.

"I knew how dangerous it was on the tracks. I knew I just had to get the number and call control and stop the trains," said Ms Lyten, who was on her way into work in the city.

"I think everyone worked really, really well together."

After a tense couple of minutes, Ms Seymour was able to help the man off the tracks and on to the platform, where he was met by ambulance officers and taken to hospital for treatment.

EMERGENCY: The man is on hands and knees on the train tracks after falling.

She said it was fortunate her training at Southbank Institute of Technology had recently covered scenarios where people lose orientation and cognitive responses are tested.

"I kept asking him questions while getting him to lift both hands, and taking his pulse. His heart rate was up," Ms Seymour said.

"It's a matter of just constantly checking that cognitive response. I was surprised how the training just kicked in."

EMERGENCY: The student nurse and bystanders help the man off the train tracks.

Queensland Rail acting chief executive Jim Benstead said it could have been a very different outcome if the approaching train had come.

"It could've gone very differently today. It could've been disastrous," Mr Benstead said.

Although he praised Ms Seymour's bravery and selflessness, he said the "right thing to do" in such a situation would be to alert station staff or use the emergency button.

In the past year, Queensland Rail has recorded 400 "near-misses" with pedestrians at level crossings and on tracks.

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Aussie boffins track blue whales by song

In a world first, acoustic technology has been used to successfully find, track and study the biggest creature on Earth, the Antarctic blue whale. Vision: www.antarctica.gov.au

• Animals were tagged after picking up on their deep, complex vocals
• Project shows whales don't need to be killed to be studied: Tony Burke
• 23 biopsy samples collected & satellite tags were attached to the whales

AN Australian-led group of scientists has for the first time tracked down and tagged Antarctic blue whales by using acoustic technology to follow its songs.

The blue whale, the largest animal on the planet, is rarely spotted in the Southern Ocean but a group of intrepid researchers were able to find and tag some of the mammals after picking up on their deep and complex vocals.

In a reference to Japan's annual whale hunt in the Antarctic, which is conducted in the name of scientific research, Environment Minister Tony Burke says this non-lethal research clearly shows it's not necessary to kill whales in order to study them.

He said the researchers, who spent seven weeks working from small boats in freezing Antarctic conditions, were captivated by the remarkable behaviour of the whales they saw.

Two of the Antarctic blue whales were fitted with satellite tags.

"The Antarctic blue whale barely escaped extinction during the industrial whaling era in the 1900s when around 340,000 whales were slaughtered," Mr Burke said.

"This research reinforces Australia's commitment to non-lethal research of whales."

The voyage was the inaugural Southern Ocean trip of the Antarctic Blue Whales Project, which aims to estimate the abundance, distribution and behaviour of this iconic species.

The researchers worked from small boats in freezing Antarctic conditions.

The scientists collected 23 biopsy samples and attached satellite tags to two of the whales.

"The tags transmitted never-before obtained data on rapid longitudinal movements during their summer feeding season and their foraging behaviour in relation to the edge of the Antarctic ice," tagger Virginia Andrews-Goff said.

"This method of studying Antarctic blue whales has been so successful it will now become the blueprint for other whale researchers across the world."

They recorded 626 hours of songs, with 26,545 calls of Antarctic blue whale analysed in real time, said lead acoustician Brian Miller.

"The researchers were then able to triangulate the position of the whales from their vocalisations and direct the ship to the target area," he said.

The Antarctic blue whale is the world's largest creature, and can grow more than 30 metres and weigh up to 180 tonnes. Its tongue alone can be heavier than an elephant, its heart as big as a small car.

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Aussie boffins track blue whales by song

In a world first, acoustic technology has been used to successfully find, track and study the biggest creature on Earth, the Antarctic blue whale. Vision: www.antarctica.gov.au

• Animals were tagged after picking up on their deep, complex vocals
• Project shows whales don't need to be killed to be studied: Tony Burke
• 23 biopsy samples collected & satellite tags were attached to the whales

AN Australian-led group of scientists has for the first time tracked down and tagged Antarctic blue whales by using acoustic technology to follow its songs.

The blue whale, the largest animal on the planet, is rarely spotted in the Southern Ocean but a group of intrepid researchers were able to find and tag some of the mammals after picking up on their deep and complex vocals.

In a reference to Japan's annual whale hunt in the Antarctic, which is conducted in the name of scientific research, Environment Minister Tony Burke says this non-lethal research clearly shows it's not necessary to kill whales in order to study them.

He said the researchers, who spent seven weeks working from small boats in freezing Antarctic conditions, were captivated by the remarkable behaviour of the whales they saw.

Two of the Antarctic blue whales were fitted with satellite tags.

"The Antarctic blue whale barely escaped extinction during the industrial whaling era in the 1900s when around 340,000 whales were slaughtered," Mr Burke said.

"This research reinforces Australia's commitment to non-lethal research of whales."

The voyage was the inaugural Southern Ocean trip of the Antarctic Blue Whales Project, which aims to estimate the abundance, distribution and behaviour of this iconic species.

The researchers worked from small boats in freezing Antarctic conditions.

The scientists collected 23 biopsy samples and attached satellite tags to two of the whales.

"The tags transmitted never-before obtained data on rapid longitudinal movements during their summer feeding season and their foraging behaviour in relation to the edge of the Antarctic ice," tagger Virginia Andrews-Goff said.

"This method of studying Antarctic blue whales has been so successful it will now become the blueprint for other whale researchers across the world."

They recorded 626 hours of songs, with 26,545 calls of Antarctic blue whale analysed in real time, said lead acoustician Brian Miller.

"The researchers were then able to triangulate the position of the whales from their vocalisations and direct the ship to the target area," he said.

The Antarctic blue whale is the world's largest creature, and can grow more than 30 metres and weigh up to 180 tonnes. Its tongue alone can be heavier than an elephant, its heart as big as a small car.

View the original article here

Get our city's trains on track

The Transport Minister Terry Mulder, Ian Dobbs (CEO of Public Transport Victoria - PTV) and Andrew Lezala (Metro) at the new multi million dollar Train Stabling and Maintenance Facility at Craigieburn. Picture: Darren Tindale Source: Herald Sun

MELBOURNE'S train network chief has outlined his vision for the future, including extending existing lines and building a new concourse at Flinders St station to cope with increasing passengers.

Metro CEO Andrew Lezala said Melburnians needed to swap cars for public transport to help secure the city's future. 

Under Mr Lezala's vision:

SUBURBAN lines would be extended to Melton, Wallan and Baxter within the next 10 years;

SUPER-SIZED nine-carriage trains capable of carrying 1800 people and new signalling systems would double the network's capacity;

PRIVATE finance, developments above city train stations and different tax models would fund projects;

AN upper level western concourse would be built at Flinders St station to improve passenger flow and allow easier access to trams at Elizabeth St;

TRAINS would run every five to 10 minutes so passengers didn't need timetables;

THE Melbourne Metro tunnel would be the first of 16 underground lines built in the next 100 years; and

BUSES would become "feeders" to train stations rather than "duplicators".

Mr Lezala also took a swipe at the State Government for failing to invest properly in signalling.

"We have new signalling systems here ... with no redundancy in them so when we get a thunderstorm it fails - brand new systems - because we didn't have enough money to build redundancy in," he told a Metro breakfast.

"I think Treasury need to take that one, actually, because you get what you pay for."

He said a decline in train patronage from 228 million trips in 2010-11 to 222 million trips in 2011-12 was a "blip" and the numbers were set to surge along with Melbourne's population.

Currently, 10 per cent of all trips are on trains.

Public Transport Users Association president Tony Morton said: "If we were to pick just one thing out of Metro's wish-list and say 'do it now', it would be the high-capacity signalling."

amelia.harris@news.com.au

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Drunk P-Plater bogged on GP track

A BOOZE-FUELLED P-Plater who became bogged on the Albert Park Grand Prix track has lost her licence.

The 20-year-old Doncaster woman and her passenger fled the scene after her Volkswagen Golf left Lakeside Dve, before smashing through a restricted area and ending up in a gravel pit about 2.40am.

Officers located the woman and her passenger near the scene a short time later.

The woman returned a positive breath test and was taken back to St Kilda police station where she allegedly blew 0.055 per cent.

She had her licence suspended for six months and is also expected to receive a number of penalty notices for traffic offences.

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