March 9, 2025 • 26 mins
When Aiyden O'Donoghue falls from a moving train, he’s left lying on the track with the next one due in 15 minutes. He's 15 years old, and suddenly, his future looks more uncertain than ever.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
For any rail-related incidents, don’t hesitate to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or in an emergency, call 000.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A warning for our audience that this episode contains conversation
about suicide.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Riding on the outside of Sydney Trains is life threatening.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
But unfortunately it's booming a four hundred ton playground on wheels.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Climbed down the steps and then just got smashed White Pole.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Police don't want to be attending the homes of visiting
the parents on the basis that we're letting them know
that their child is in hospital or even worse, they've deceased.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
Got a phone call from a friend of Aiden's saying
I think Aiden's dead.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
He got hit by train.
Speaker 6 (00:32):
We have a lot of fatalities on the network and
it does affect and ruins the careers.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Of our people.
Speaker 7 (00:37):
Target range of people that we see undertaking this kind
of behavior as normally high school age, mainly boys.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
I never told people not to I've just told them
to be careful. It's some people just don't learn and
I was one of them.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
On a Tuesday morning in November twenty twenty three, fifteen
year old Eden of Donahue leaves home to meet with friends.
They decided to hop on one of the trains on
the Tier three in Liverpool and in a West Line
in Sydney, he cal said popping. But in the media
it's become known as train surfing or buffer riding.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
I've never met a kid that refers to it as
buffer riding. It's always been popping or your back ons
or whatever. I don't know where that term came from.
It's just what I know it has and what i'd
assume almost everyone else does. You got two different things,
so you got back on it's like jumping onto the
back of the train of a different type of train.
(01:55):
And then you got popping, which is breaking into the
crew compartment, all the guards compartment, you really want to
call it. It's a good way to kind of just
clear your mind. And then it's the censor community in
there too. Like I never had trouble with anyone. It's
always very welcoming because a lot of the kids that
were in and around the time I was from troubled
(02:17):
backgrounds and they're all there for the same reason, just
trying to escape something and have a bit of fun.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
He ditched school that day and got into an argument
with his mum, Amy Davis, earlier over it. He hadn't
been getting along for some time and with hell from
his school. He was placed in the Southernland refuge.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Unfortunately, Aiden and I were at a pretty toxic relationship,
being a teenage boy not a real follower, which unfortunately
was making life very hard here. So his school, as
great as they are, helped intervene and we got him
into a refuge.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
But the morning of the incident, unfortunately, Aid and I'd
had a massive argument, and I had probably said some
not so nice things because he said he wasn't going
to school and I basically said, well, you know, you're
ruining your life as it is, probably not in those words,
(03:19):
but along those lines.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Unlike other teenagers, Ada knows a lot about trains and
he could probably name every train running on Sydney's Line
at the moment. He can even tell us how to
get on a train to surf. But for safety reasons
we decided to leave that part out. The one train
he usually popped was the same he would later fall off.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I probably met someone knew every time or jumped on
the train. You get online and it'd always be someone
sitting by the back door, like a lot of the kids.
I know. That's just how I met him. A lot
of people that do it also pain or do graffiti
or whatever. It kind of tie his hand in hand.
If she met someone that trains and serve, chances are
that paint or they pay with people that paint.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Aiden's mother, Amy, describes him as having the biggest heart
in the world, a child who would do anything for anyone,
even give the shirt of his back to someone in need. However,
she also knows that he hasn't always made the best choices.
This morning, as she was at home getting ready for work,
she had no idea that he was out train surfing.
(04:25):
While she had heard him mention it briefly before, she
hadn't fully understood what it was without realizing the dangers involved.
It didn't set off the alarm bells it should have.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
I wish he made a better choice, but he didn't.
And like he was saying before too, the reason the
kids do it is because they lost a lot of
them are lost. They don't have they don't have the
great home lives. Look that he didn't and he'll tell
you that he had a great home life. He just
(04:56):
was with the real crowd. And you know, the day
went on. School called me and said, you know, Aiden's
not at school, and I went, Okay, what do you do?
Not much I can do. And then I went to
work and did my day, and I think about eleven
thirty I got a phone call from a friend of
(05:18):
Aiden's who actually lives on this side of Sydney, saying,
I think Aiden's dead.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
He got hit by a.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Train on the train on their T three line.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Aiden and his friends are mucking around, as he calls it,
in the tunnels.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Some friends leave the train earlier.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
While others join later, so the group changes throughout the day,
hanging out in the guards compartment when suddenly his friend's
foot get stuck and he's almost dragged out, But instead
of it serving as a sign to stop what they're doing,
they instead decide to avoid the tunnels and wait until
they're out in the open.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
We're on up for a fair and Montmatorum was probably
an hour and a half train ride to Liverpool and
we got to me thanks Tony Guerna. And that's just
where I got claned up. Wasn't paying attention then might
look out before or started it and climbed down the
steps and then just got smash block hole.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
The Sydney trains weigh four hundred tons, can travel up
to one hundred and ten kilometers an hour and are
responsible for claiming on average, eighty four lives each year.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Now, while the most.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Common depths on the tracks are people taking their own life,
train surfing is becoming a much more frequent site for
train crews and station staff. While the dangerous behavior does
not always result in death, it may cause permanent injury
to the person doing it or to the staff having
to front The sometimes grewsome scenes, but this wasn't something
(07:19):
that Aiden and his friends thought about.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
I did have an experience only in October when I
was a passenger on a train going back to Oi
WOI and a young a young lady got in the
middle carriage. Only found out as we got to the
station she was hanging out like a surfing in the
in the train and the train jolted and that that
young girl fell out. So I had to get rail
traffic to be stopped because the next train could have
(07:49):
rained that lady over. The young lady. Luckily for her
and for our crew, she was picked up by the
next train went to hospital, but unfortunately it puts our
Our people are very vulnerable. We have a lot of
fatalities on the network and it does affect and ruins
the careers.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Of our people. That's real.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Tram and Bus Union president Craig Turner. Before moving into
an office role eight years ago, he spent nineteen years
working lad shift as a train guard. While he's never
witnessed a fatality, he's seeing plenty of near missus. People
taking dangerous risks, getting badly injured and dealing with a
harsh reality that follows.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
It's called critical incident leave. If I'm involved in something
like that, what happens to me. I get five working
days off, I get proper talk with EAP they call it,
so you've got a counselor that's usually within the railways.
And then if I'm fit enough to come back to work,
I come back with one of what we call a
(08:51):
peer support person. They are trained. A train guard will
come back for two days with another guard, and a
driver will come back with another driver. Know, these people
share the duties. It's work fantastic. Not saying that it
works for everyone, but it's really worked well. But a
number of people have had a number of fatalities and
that finishes their career unfortunately, and they get into a
(09:14):
dark place.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Craig, who first heard about train surfing fifteen years ago,
says there are no winners in train surfing and that
anyone thinking of doing it should think about everyone whose
lives will be changed forever. According to the Rail, Tram
and Bus Union, it's expected that most long term drivers
will experience a fatal incident at.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Some time in their career.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
When asked if the injuries he seemed still affect him today,
Craig says yes, but directs his answers more towards his peers.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
Of course, they have flashbacks, etc. And they come into
stations and where someone's had a fatality. It makes it
very gruesome for them. So a lot of people have
a mental backlash over it, and I have to say
get involved with a number of those people our members.
You never know how anyone can react. We can have ladies,
(10:07):
even young ladies at work with us, have one of
those instances and it doesn't affect them that much. And
we could have an older, a gentleman, a big fella
who then has a breakdown over it. So no one knows,
and it's nothing against anyone. You never know how anyone's
going to react. We've had drivers that have had a
number of fatalities, and yet we've had some that have
(10:27):
had one and they'll never work again. So that's the
problem that ruins careers and people's lives.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Aiden of course, doesn't remember much of the day, neither
how he fell, much of the pain, or who exactly
called triple zero.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Just have been upside down. And I was sitting toolwhite
cup of the meter and a half in the tracks.
I eventually woke up. I just started get attention on
me to get help somehow, and I'm yelling at some
dude on the other side, and his balcony comes out
and he's talking to me, and he calls an ambo,
(11:14):
and I remember I wanting water the whole time. I
kind of come to the place, is all bloody in
his hands. I remember laying kind of awkwardly. I could
tell my right leg was buggered and I couldn't move it,
and I knew something was up with that. And then
I also broke my left ankle, but I couldn't tell
(11:34):
that anything was wrong. But I wasn't in any pain.
And I don't say that like trying to see him
tough or whatever, but you just in so much shock
and there's so much going on. You're still trying to
figure out what actually happened that you just don't notice
the pain.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
While his memory is fussy from that day, he remembers
being put into the back of an ambulance and hearing
the first responders say they wanted an overrat to go
to the children's hospital.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
At the West.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And I remember being in hospital, tried to take the
neck brice off and and I remember them putting me
in traction. That's it before my surgery.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Reports that followed said Aiden had fallen off the moving
train between.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Bankstown and Naguna.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
The next train would have been due in approximately fifteen
minutes later, he found out that one of his friends,
who was with him on the train when he fell,
jumped off at the next stop to try and find him. Meanwhile,
the other two fled to avoid getting in trouble. At hospital,
he is treated for his injuries. He's cut his face,
(12:40):
broken his left ankle and broke in his right femur
in five places. Detective Superintendent Todd Cunningham, commander of the
New South Wales Police Transport Command, considers this luck.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Falling from a train and being able to still go
back and see your family and catch up with the
friends days after is extremely lucky. We have seen incidents
where young kids have fallen from the train and it's
not a game. This is a serious incident that you
could be seriously injured or killed. Police don't want to
be attending the homes of visiting the parents on the
(13:17):
basis that we're letting them know that their child is
in hospital or even worse, they've decised.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The Police Transport Command, also called the PTC, looks after
New South Wales Transport network. The specialist unit is broken
up into three sectors, north Central.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Southwest and Northwest.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
The idea is to keep the network safe as well
as reduced crime. Since being established off the back of
a crime unit, the PTC teamed up with Transport for
New South Wales's Sydney Trains to not just focused on safety,
but also to find the best way to reach train surfers, most.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Of whom are young men like Aiden.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Over the last twelve months, social media has been identified
as one of the fact driving the dangerous behavior.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Kids are bold.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Sharing clips of themselves are serving the trends on online platforms,
despite police operating and monitoring around the clock. By our
thirteen thousand CCTV cameras across the network.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So we're working with our digital media to get the
message out there on the platforms that they're looking at.
We have done some stuff on TikTok and YouTube to
get that message out there. We've had some really good
results out of that, so that's been really positive. We've
had one of our officers as early as last night
be identified from that video and the kids wanting to
get selfies with him.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
You see someone's popper writing ring triple zero, immediate three weak,
new technology, it's in now video live stream directly from
your phone. Uh, your core could be the difference between
life and death.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So really positive in relation to that. So we know
that it's hitting the market that we need to hit.
So it's really important that they note that and they
be aware. Like Aiden's story is amazing, brave young man
that's come forward to tell his story with his.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Mum, and it's just something.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
That they need to realize. It's not just the game.
This is real.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
So where is this dangerous behavior coming from? According to Aiden,
it's not something new and has been a run for
some time. He's also not too confident that this behavior
will ever stop. The trend exists outside of Australia too,
with trained surfers also a problem in the United States. There,
they've started using drones to combat the problem, something Detective
(15:28):
Superintendent Todd says PTC have looked at as well, but
due to restrictions where drones can fly, he says it's
too hard to deploy them. However, Todd ads that if needed,
Paul Air can step in to assist with operations. Sydney
Train's chief executive, Matt Longland, thinks train surfing might partly
(15:48):
stem from an old video game.
Speaker 7 (15:50):
We've seen this kind of behavior for a little while now,
and I think some might know. There was a game,
a computer game called Subway Surfers, which is sort of
where you have to run between trains and dodge trains
and that sort of thing, an American game, I think
probably since that was released a number of years ago.
We've seen mainly young people. So the kind of target
(16:11):
range of people that we see undertaking this kind of
behavior is normally high school age, mainly boys.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Matt things the best way to reach the cohort is
through education, both at home with parents and in schools,
where open conversations with kids can make a real impact.
Speaker 7 (16:30):
So it's really appealing to parents to have that conversation.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
With their children.
Speaker 7 (16:34):
Educating the community about the dangers of this kind of behavior.
That's probably the most effective tool. Clearly, enforcement is also
a tool, and we work very closely with the Police
Transport Command fines of more than five hundred dollars if
you're caught undertaking this kind of behavior. We do a
lot of interception of this kind of high risk behavior
across the network every day. The police are out every day,
(16:56):
our security patrols are out every day. That's how we
accept people undertaking this behavior. And it's not all about
catching people and finding them, it's about actually stopping the behavior.
And the third area we've worked on is about engineering controls.
So that's about making the rail network safer, making it
harder for people to access and trespass on rail tracks,
(17:17):
tunnels and bridges, but also on our trains, so strengthening
the security of our crew cabs on trains, making sure
that even with our older trains it's harder for people
to access the parts of the traind that are most dangerous.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
The collaborative approach between Sydney Trains and the PTC to detect,
identifying target offenders has in fact proved successful.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
But while the joint.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Effort has led to a decrease in the number of
reported incidents on the transport network, the dangerous trend has continued,
prompting the question if a tougher punishment would help RTBU
president and tren Guard Craig think so.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Unfortunately, you'd have to say that would be juveniles and
they're not arrested, they get a caution and they think
it's a joke. I worked with the police and the
Police Transport Command, a number of them, have numerous ones. Look,
it's very hard with the law these days with the
juveniles and the police have told me that. So they're
(18:18):
very restricted on what they can do, whether they lower
the age maybe from eighteen to fourteen or whatever. So
these young people could be how would you like to
put it incarcerated for a while and they could learn
a lesson out of it. But until then, I'm not sure.
This is up to governments, but there's different legislation, so
it's very hard. It's a terrible thing for the police,
(18:41):
the Police Transport Command. They got their hands tied and
what they do, so I feel for them as well.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Aiden's recovery in hospital was long and tough for his
mom Amy. It was an emotional whirlwind hours desperately trying
to reach him, fearing the worst, until an officer finally
confirmed he was alive and being treated at hospital.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
I actually don't even remember driving to the hospital and
got to the hospital and they went straight into the
trauma unit and he was alive, which was better than
what I thought I was going to see. Yeah, but
the first thing I said to him is I'm here.
(19:33):
And the first thing he said to me was Mom,
I didn't think you were going to come, so but
you know, something like this had to happen. Aiden was
saying before that you can't tell kids to stop doing it.
Some kids have to learn the hard way, which is
(19:54):
a really bad thing to say, but you can tell
them a hundred times. They just want they have to
learn the hard way. They're not going to take that
easy route. But it was a pretty big day that day.
Needless to say, I don't think I go home until
wait that night, and went back the next morning and
it all started again.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
At the hospital. Amy visited him every day and was
in control or who was allowed to visit him. She
says she wasn't allowed to sleep over since Aiden was
considered too old. Visits ranged between family, some bnard old friends,
and also his school counselor.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
From the day that Aiden had the incident, the school
has been there one hundred percent, Like he was saying,
his counselor was driving from the Shire to.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
West Meat, you know, to make sure he was okay.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
The school rang every single day, you know, checkings and
that kind of stuff. So the support we've had has
been phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Among the people also wanting to see Aiden were of
course the police. They rang on his second day in hospital,
wanting to see him the following week. This was something
that of course had crossed Aiden's mind, like the.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Didn't I and did the police and legal trouble was
expecting a couple charges considering it, and it's not like
it was just the one offense. I also had a
couple markets in my bag and some other stuff and
that just added to what happened. But in hospital I
wasn't really conscious enough to be really seriously thinking about everything.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Aiden, who had previous cautions also known as marks in
relation to other incidents, says he faced being charged with
up to seven offenses, but got away with a caution
since he chose to.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Cooperate with the police.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
He spent nearly four weeks in the hospital, bedridden for.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
The first two. By the third week, he.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Was moving around in a wheelchair and eventually regained the
ability to stand, only to snap his leg again last
July at a train station where the train guards came
to his aid. Both Amy and Aiden can't help but
see the irony in that so big setback.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I was so happy when I first got in a wheelchair.
But even though I could only go up and down
my one hall off the ward, it was pretty fun.
And then Mum took me outside for the first time,
and that was so good. There's a photo somewhere Me's
sitting there with a coffee, just with a big smile.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
At Westmead Hospital there were Starbucks and he was just
so excited that the big smile on his face, and
he actually little got a Starbucks and I rolled him
out the front door of Westmead Hospital and he was just.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Vitamin D.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
I guess he was just happy to be in the
fresh air and not being award. And you know, you
see that ward was so loud and so many teenage
boys and most of those teenage boys who are in
there because they're riding motorbikes, are falling off bikes and
stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
What I expected he to be.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
But yet so that was just a really good moment
for him. So and just to see him smile, because
he hadn't smiled much, which is fair enough, but that
moment was good for him.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Part of Aiden's recovery was also psychological. He kept a
good relationship with his counselor at school and says he
wouldn't have taken up any offers by the hospital to
talk with anyone else. As for his friends he met
through train surfing and why he's chosen to share his story,
he says that most of them stopped after his incident.
(23:30):
Whether or not it's because of what happened to him,
he's not sure.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
I've never told people not to I've just told them
be careful. I advise against it. It's not worth it.
It's been a year and a bit and I still
walk with a limp and can barely run. But it's
some people just don't learn, and I was one of them.
Some people witness it first hand, like one of my friends,
and went, I've got to stop this, and then others
(23:56):
just don't. You can tell them a hundred times, you
can show them all the people gone hurt, and they
just don't seem to learn, and this kind of at
that point, you're just going to let what's going to
happen happen.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
As for Aiden's mom, Amy, who has supported him throughout
his recovery, she's seen firsthand the harmful ripple effect of
social media. She experienced this when Aiden's younger sister received
the video of his fall from the train on social media.
Speaker 5 (24:23):
She's quite fragile, such a beautiful kid, she's gorgeous fifteen
year old girl, and she gets this video basically looks
like her brother's being sucked at the side of a train,
and she was one of the first people to get
it once it went up on social media, so that
she's found it traumatized. She's always constantly up his backside,
(24:48):
say to me when he's going.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Today, Amy is encouraging parents to talk openly with their
kids about train surfing, not just about the risks, but
also about how their action affected people around them.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
I have had other parents reach out to me and
because their children are doing it and they don't know
what to do, and it's like it's going to be
the easy way of the hard way. I know that
I have friends who have friends of friends who have
had train drivers who've had people jump in front of
the trains, which I can't imagine, Like that would just
(25:23):
be so traumatic. And this is something I actually have
even said to Aid in the past. How do you
that train driver feels? You know, what if you didn't
make it, that train driver is going to live with
that forever. You know, That's something that they've got to
think about. And unfortunately we have a generation that doesn't.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
So what's next for Aiden?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
He still enjoys being outdoors, likes to go fishing in Woollongong,
and is interested in hiking and mountaineering. He's in year
eleven and wants to finish year twelve and get his
HSC to possibly joined the Navy. It all depends on
how he recovers from his injuries.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I want to finish that, get my h SEEN, hopefully
join the navy, do something there. But again I'm not
going to know if I can or not with the injury,
and they won't really give a clear answer.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression
or suicidal thoughts. Call Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen for
any rail related incidents. Don't hesitate to call crime Stoppers
on one eight hundred, triple three, triple zero, or in
an emergency, called triple zero,
A warning for our audience that this episode contains conversation
about suicide.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Riding on the outside of Sydney Trains is life threatening.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
But unfortunately it's booming a four hundred ton playground on wheels.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Climbed down the steps and then just got smashed White Pole.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Police don't want to be attending the homes of visiting
the parents on the basis that we're letting them know
that their child is in hospital or even worse, they've deceased.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
Got a phone call from a friend of Aiden's saying
I think Aiden's dead.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
He got hit by train.
Speaker 6 (00:32):
We have a lot of fatalities on the network and
it does affect and ruins the careers.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Of our people.
Speaker 7 (00:37):
Target range of people that we see undertaking this kind
of behavior as normally high school age, mainly boys.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
I never told people not to I've just told them
to be careful. It's some people just don't learn and
I was one of them.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
On a Tuesday morning in November twenty twenty three, fifteen
year old Eden of Donahue leaves home to meet with friends.
They decided to hop on one of the trains on
the Tier three in Liverpool and in a West Line
in Sydney, he cal said popping. But in the media
it's become known as train surfing or buffer riding.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
I've never met a kid that refers to it as
buffer riding. It's always been popping or your back ons
or whatever. I don't know where that term came from.
It's just what I know it has and what i'd
assume almost everyone else does. You got two different things,
so you got back on it's like jumping onto the
back of the train of a different type of train.
(01:55):
And then you got popping, which is breaking into the
crew compartment, all the guards compartment, you really want to
call it. It's a good way to kind of just
clear your mind. And then it's the censor community in
there too. Like I never had trouble with anyone. It's
always very welcoming because a lot of the kids that
were in and around the time I was from troubled
(02:17):
backgrounds and they're all there for the same reason, just
trying to escape something and have a bit of fun.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
He ditched school that day and got into an argument
with his mum, Amy Davis, earlier over it. He hadn't
been getting along for some time and with hell from
his school. He was placed in the Southernland refuge.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
Unfortunately, Aiden and I were at a pretty toxic relationship,
being a teenage boy not a real follower, which unfortunately
was making life very hard here. So his school, as
great as they are, helped intervene and we got him
into a refuge.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
But the morning of the incident, unfortunately, Aid and I'd
had a massive argument, and I had probably said some
not so nice things because he said he wasn't going
to school and I basically said, well, you know, you're
ruining your life as it is, probably not in those words,
(03:19):
but along those lines.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Unlike other teenagers, Ada knows a lot about trains and
he could probably name every train running on Sydney's Line
at the moment. He can even tell us how to
get on a train to surf. But for safety reasons
we decided to leave that part out. The one train
he usually popped was the same he would later fall off.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I probably met someone knew every time or jumped on
the train. You get online and it'd always be someone
sitting by the back door, like a lot of the kids.
I know. That's just how I met him. A lot
of people that do it also pain or do graffiti
or whatever. It kind of tie his hand in hand.
If she met someone that trains and serve, chances are
that paint or they pay with people that paint.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Aiden's mother, Amy, describes him as having the biggest heart
in the world, a child who would do anything for anyone,
even give the shirt of his back to someone in need. However,
she also knows that he hasn't always made the best choices.
This morning, as she was at home getting ready for work,
she had no idea that he was out train surfing.
(04:25):
While she had heard him mention it briefly before, she
hadn't fully understood what it was without realizing the dangers involved.
It didn't set off the alarm bells it should have.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
I wish he made a better choice, but he didn't.
And like he was saying before too, the reason the
kids do it is because they lost a lot of
them are lost. They don't have they don't have the
great home lives. Look that he didn't and he'll tell
you that he had a great home life. He just
(04:56):
was with the real crowd. And you know, the day
went on. School called me and said, you know, Aiden's
not at school, and I went, Okay, what do you do?
Not much I can do. And then I went to
work and did my day, and I think about eleven
thirty I got a phone call from a friend of
(05:18):
Aiden's who actually lives on this side of Sydney, saying,
I think Aiden's dead.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
He got hit by a.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Train on the train on their T three line.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Aiden and his friends are mucking around, as he calls it,
in the tunnels.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Some friends leave the train earlier.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
While others join later, so the group changes throughout the day,
hanging out in the guards compartment when suddenly his friend's
foot get stuck and he's almost dragged out, But instead
of it serving as a sign to stop what they're doing,
they instead decide to avoid the tunnels and wait until
they're out in the open.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
We're on up for a fair and Montmatorum was probably
an hour and a half train ride to Liverpool and
we got to me thanks Tony Guerna. And that's just
where I got claned up. Wasn't paying attention then might
look out before or started it and climbed down the
steps and then just got smash block hole.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
The Sydney trains weigh four hundred tons, can travel up
to one hundred and ten kilometers an hour and are
responsible for claiming on average, eighty four lives each year.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Now, while the most.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Common depths on the tracks are people taking their own life,
train surfing is becoming a much more frequent site for
train crews and station staff. While the dangerous behavior does
not always result in death, it may cause permanent injury
to the person doing it or to the staff having
to front The sometimes grewsome scenes, but this wasn't something
(07:19):
that Aiden and his friends thought about.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
I did have an experience only in October when I
was a passenger on a train going back to Oi
WOI and a young a young lady got in the
middle carriage. Only found out as we got to the
station she was hanging out like a surfing in the
in the train and the train jolted and that that
young girl fell out. So I had to get rail
traffic to be stopped because the next train could have
(07:49):
rained that lady over. The young lady. Luckily for her
and for our crew, she was picked up by the
next train went to hospital, but unfortunately it puts our
Our people are very vulnerable. We have a lot of
fatalities on the network and it does affect and ruins
the careers.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Of our people. That's real.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Tram and Bus Union president Craig Turner. Before moving into
an office role eight years ago, he spent nineteen years
working lad shift as a train guard. While he's never
witnessed a fatality, he's seeing plenty of near missus. People
taking dangerous risks, getting badly injured and dealing with a
harsh reality that follows.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
It's called critical incident leave. If I'm involved in something
like that, what happens to me. I get five working
days off, I get proper talk with EAP they call it,
so you've got a counselor that's usually within the railways.
And then if I'm fit enough to come back to work,
I come back with one of what we call a
(08:51):
peer support person. They are trained. A train guard will
come back for two days with another guard, and a
driver will come back with another driver. Know, these people
share the duties. It's work fantastic. Not saying that it
works for everyone, but it's really worked well. But a
number of people have had a number of fatalities and
that finishes their career unfortunately, and they get into a
(09:14):
dark place.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Craig, who first heard about train surfing fifteen years ago,
says there are no winners in train surfing and that
anyone thinking of doing it should think about everyone whose
lives will be changed forever. According to the Rail, Tram
and Bus Union, it's expected that most long term drivers
will experience a fatal incident at.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Some time in their career.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
When asked if the injuries he seemed still affect him today,
Craig says yes, but directs his answers more towards his peers.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
Of course, they have flashbacks, etc. And they come into
stations and where someone's had a fatality. It makes it
very gruesome for them. So a lot of people have
a mental backlash over it, and I have to say
get involved with a number of those people our members.
You never know how anyone can react. We can have ladies,
(10:07):
even young ladies at work with us, have one of
those instances and it doesn't affect them that much. And
we could have an older, a gentleman, a big fella
who then has a breakdown over it. So no one knows,
and it's nothing against anyone. You never know how anyone's
going to react. We've had drivers that have had a
number of fatalities, and yet we've had some that have
(10:27):
had one and they'll never work again. So that's the
problem that ruins careers and people's lives.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Aiden of course, doesn't remember much of the day, neither
how he fell, much of the pain, or who exactly
called triple zero.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Just have been upside down. And I was sitting toolwhite
cup of the meter and a half in the tracks.
I eventually woke up. I just started get attention on
me to get help somehow, and I'm yelling at some
dude on the other side, and his balcony comes out
and he's talking to me, and he calls an ambo,
(11:14):
and I remember I wanting water the whole time. I
kind of come to the place, is all bloody in
his hands. I remember laying kind of awkwardly. I could
tell my right leg was buggered and I couldn't move it,
and I knew something was up with that. And then
I also broke my left ankle, but I couldn't tell
(11:34):
that anything was wrong. But I wasn't in any pain.
And I don't say that like trying to see him
tough or whatever, but you just in so much shock
and there's so much going on. You're still trying to
figure out what actually happened that you just don't notice
the pain.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
While his memory is fussy from that day, he remembers
being put into the back of an ambulance and hearing
the first responders say they wanted an overrat to go
to the children's hospital.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
At the West.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
And I remember being in hospital, tried to take the
neck brice off and and I remember them putting me
in traction. That's it before my surgery.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Reports that followed said Aiden had fallen off the moving
train between.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Bankstown and Naguna.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
The next train would have been due in approximately fifteen
minutes later, he found out that one of his friends,
who was with him on the train when he fell,
jumped off at the next stop to try and find him. Meanwhile,
the other two fled to avoid getting in trouble. At hospital,
he is treated for his injuries. He's cut his face,
(12:40):
broken his left ankle and broke in his right femur
in five places. Detective Superintendent Todd Cunningham, commander of the
New South Wales Police Transport Command, considers this luck.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Falling from a train and being able to still go
back and see your family and catch up with the
friends days after is extremely lucky. We have seen incidents
where young kids have fallen from the train and it's
not a game. This is a serious incident that you
could be seriously injured or killed. Police don't want to
be attending the homes of visiting the parents on the
(13:17):
basis that we're letting them know that their child is
in hospital or even worse, they've decised.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The Police Transport Command, also called the PTC, looks after
New South Wales Transport network. The specialist unit is broken
up into three sectors, north Central.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Southwest and Northwest.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
The idea is to keep the network safe as well
as reduced crime. Since being established off the back of
a crime unit, the PTC teamed up with Transport for
New South Wales's Sydney Trains to not just focused on safety,
but also to find the best way to reach train surfers, most.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Of whom are young men like Aiden.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Over the last twelve months, social media has been identified
as one of the fact driving the dangerous behavior.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Kids are bold.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Sharing clips of themselves are serving the trends on online platforms,
despite police operating and monitoring around the clock. By our
thirteen thousand CCTV cameras across the network.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So we're working with our digital media to get the
message out there on the platforms that they're looking at.
We have done some stuff on TikTok and YouTube to
get that message out there. We've had some really good
results out of that, so that's been really positive. We've
had one of our officers as early as last night
be identified from that video and the kids wanting to
get selfies with him.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
You see someone's popper writing ring triple zero, immediate three weak,
new technology, it's in now video live stream directly from
your phone. Uh, your core could be the difference between
life and death.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So really positive in relation to that. So we know
that it's hitting the market that we need to hit.
So it's really important that they note that and they
be aware. Like Aiden's story is amazing, brave young man
that's come forward to tell his story with his.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Mum, and it's just something.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
That they need to realize. It's not just the game.
This is real.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
So where is this dangerous behavior coming from? According to Aiden,
it's not something new and has been a run for
some time. He's also not too confident that this behavior
will ever stop. The trend exists outside of Australia too,
with trained surfers also a problem in the United States. There,
they've started using drones to combat the problem, something Detective
(15:28):
Superintendent Todd says PTC have looked at as well, but
due to restrictions where drones can fly, he says it's
too hard to deploy them. However, Todd ads that if needed,
Paul Air can step in to assist with operations. Sydney
Train's chief executive, Matt Longland, thinks train surfing might partly
(15:48):
stem from an old video game.
Speaker 7 (15:50):
We've seen this kind of behavior for a little while now,
and I think some might know. There was a game,
a computer game called Subway Surfers, which is sort of
where you have to run between trains and dodge trains
and that sort of thing, an American game, I think
probably since that was released a number of years ago.
We've seen mainly young people. So the kind of target
(16:11):
range of people that we see undertaking this kind of
behavior is normally high school age, mainly boys.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Matt things the best way to reach the cohort is
through education, both at home with parents and in schools,
where open conversations with kids can make a real impact.
Speaker 7 (16:30):
So it's really appealing to parents to have that conversation.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
With their children.
Speaker 7 (16:34):
Educating the community about the dangers of this kind of behavior.
That's probably the most effective tool. Clearly, enforcement is also
a tool, and we work very closely with the Police
Transport Command fines of more than five hundred dollars if
you're caught undertaking this kind of behavior. We do a
lot of interception of this kind of high risk behavior
across the network every day. The police are out every day,
(16:56):
our security patrols are out every day. That's how we
accept people undertaking this behavior. And it's not all about
catching people and finding them, it's about actually stopping the behavior.
And the third area we've worked on is about engineering controls.
So that's about making the rail network safer, making it
harder for people to access and trespass on rail tracks,
(17:17):
tunnels and bridges, but also on our trains, so strengthening
the security of our crew cabs on trains, making sure
that even with our older trains it's harder for people
to access the parts of the traind that are most dangerous.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
The collaborative approach between Sydney Trains and the PTC to detect,
identifying target offenders has in fact proved successful.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
But while the joint.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Effort has led to a decrease in the number of
reported incidents on the transport network, the dangerous trend has continued,
prompting the question if a tougher punishment would help RTBU
president and tren Guard Craig think so.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Unfortunately, you'd have to say that would be juveniles and
they're not arrested, they get a caution and they think
it's a joke. I worked with the police and the
Police Transport Command, a number of them, have numerous ones. Look,
it's very hard with the law these days with the
juveniles and the police have told me that. So they're
(18:18):
very restricted on what they can do, whether they lower
the age maybe from eighteen to fourteen or whatever. So
these young people could be how would you like to
put it incarcerated for a while and they could learn
a lesson out of it. But until then, I'm not sure.
This is up to governments, but there's different legislation, so
it's very hard. It's a terrible thing for the police,
(18:41):
the Police Transport Command. They got their hands tied and
what they do, so I feel for them as well.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Aiden's recovery in hospital was long and tough for his
mom Amy. It was an emotional whirlwind hours desperately trying
to reach him, fearing the worst, until an officer finally
confirmed he was alive and being treated at hospital.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
I actually don't even remember driving to the hospital and
got to the hospital and they went straight into the
trauma unit and he was alive, which was better than
what I thought I was going to see. Yeah, but
the first thing I said to him is I'm here.
(19:33):
And the first thing he said to me was Mom,
I didn't think you were going to come, so but
you know, something like this had to happen. Aiden was
saying before that you can't tell kids to stop doing it.
Some kids have to learn the hard way, which is
(19:54):
a really bad thing to say, but you can tell
them a hundred times. They just want they have to
learn the hard way. They're not going to take that
easy route. But it was a pretty big day that day.
Needless to say, I don't think I go home until
wait that night, and went back the next morning and
it all started again.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
At the hospital. Amy visited him every day and was
in control or who was allowed to visit him. She
says she wasn't allowed to sleep over since Aiden was
considered too old. Visits ranged between family, some bnard old friends,
and also his school counselor.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
From the day that Aiden had the incident, the school
has been there one hundred percent, Like he was saying,
his counselor was driving from the Shire to.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
West Meat, you know, to make sure he was okay.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
The school rang every single day, you know, checkings and
that kind of stuff. So the support we've had has
been phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Among the people also wanting to see Aiden were of
course the police. They rang on his second day in hospital,
wanting to see him the following week. This was something
that of course had crossed Aiden's mind, like the.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Didn't I and did the police and legal trouble was
expecting a couple charges considering it, and it's not like
it was just the one offense. I also had a
couple markets in my bag and some other stuff and
that just added to what happened. But in hospital I
wasn't really conscious enough to be really seriously thinking about everything.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Aiden, who had previous cautions also known as marks in
relation to other incidents, says he faced being charged with
up to seven offenses, but got away with a caution
since he chose to.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Cooperate with the police.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
He spent nearly four weeks in the hospital, bedridden for.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
The first two. By the third week, he.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Was moving around in a wheelchair and eventually regained the
ability to stand, only to snap his leg again last
July at a train station where the train guards came
to his aid. Both Amy and Aiden can't help but
see the irony in that so big setback.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I was so happy when I first got in a wheelchair.
But even though I could only go up and down
my one hall off the ward, it was pretty fun.
And then Mum took me outside for the first time,
and that was so good. There's a photo somewhere Me's
sitting there with a coffee, just with a big smile.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
At Westmead Hospital there were Starbucks and he was just
so excited that the big smile on his face, and
he actually little got a Starbucks and I rolled him
out the front door of Westmead Hospital and he was just.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Vitamin D.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
I guess he was just happy to be in the
fresh air and not being award. And you know, you
see that ward was so loud and so many teenage
boys and most of those teenage boys who are in
there because they're riding motorbikes, are falling off bikes and
stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
What I expected he to be.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
But yet so that was just a really good moment
for him. So and just to see him smile, because
he hadn't smiled much, which is fair enough, but that
moment was good for him.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Part of Aiden's recovery was also psychological. He kept a
good relationship with his counselor at school and says he
wouldn't have taken up any offers by the hospital to
talk with anyone else. As for his friends he met
through train surfing and why he's chosen to share his story,
he says that most of them stopped after his incident.
(23:30):
Whether or not it's because of what happened to him,
he's not sure.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
I've never told people not to I've just told them
be careful. I advise against it. It's not worth it.
It's been a year and a bit and I still
walk with a limp and can barely run. But it's
some people just don't learn, and I was one of them.
Some people witness it first hand, like one of my friends,
and went, I've got to stop this, and then others
(23:56):
just don't. You can tell them a hundred times, you
can show them all the people gone hurt, and they
just don't seem to learn, and this kind of at
that point, you're just going to let what's going to
happen happen.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
As for Aiden's mom, Amy, who has supported him throughout
his recovery, she's seen firsthand the harmful ripple effect of
social media. She experienced this when Aiden's younger sister received
the video of his fall from the train on social media.
Speaker 5 (24:23):
She's quite fragile, such a beautiful kid, she's gorgeous fifteen
year old girl, and she gets this video basically looks
like her brother's being sucked at the side of a train,
and she was one of the first people to get
it once it went up on social media, so that
she's found it traumatized. She's always constantly up his backside,
(24:48):
say to me when he's going.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Today, Amy is encouraging parents to talk openly with their
kids about train surfing, not just about the risks, but
also about how their action affected people around them.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
I have had other parents reach out to me and
because their children are doing it and they don't know
what to do, and it's like it's going to be
the easy way of the hard way. I know that
I have friends who have friends of friends who have
had train drivers who've had people jump in front of
the trains, which I can't imagine, Like that would just
(25:23):
be so traumatic. And this is something I actually have
even said to Aid in the past. How do you
that train driver feels? You know, what if you didn't
make it, that train driver is going to live with
that forever. You know, That's something that they've got to
think about. And unfortunately we have a generation that doesn't.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
So what's next for Aiden?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
He still enjoys being outdoors, likes to go fishing in Woollongong,
and is interested in hiking and mountaineering. He's in year
eleven and wants to finish year twelve and get his
HSC to possibly joined the Navy. It all depends on
how he recovers from his injuries.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
I want to finish that, get my h SEEN, hopefully
join the navy, do something there. But again I'm not
going to know if I can or not with the injury,
and they won't really give a clear answer.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression
or suicidal thoughts. Call Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen for
any rail related incidents. Don't hesitate to call crime Stoppers
on one eight hundred, triple three, triple zero, or in
an emergency, called triple zero,
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