NSW Premier Formally Apologises For Australia’s Worst Ever Train Disaster

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Published

May 4, 2017

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has formally apologised to the victims of the 1977 Granville train disaster, which killed 83 people and left 213 injured, and is often described as the worst rail disaster in Australia‘s history.

“Today is about making amends with an apology that should have happened 40 years ago,” Berejiklian said, acknowledging that many survivors, family of victims and rail employees did not receive the support they believed they needed in the wake of the disaster.

On January 19, 1977, a packed train derailed and the overhead railway bridge collapsed, crushing the carriages beneath.

“We very rarely see them coming but the way we choose to respond to them have a profound and lasting effect on victims that have loved ones and the community more broadly,” Berejiklian said. “18th January 1977 was such a day.”

.@GladysB: “I want to apologise on behalf of the government for all those who still suffer.” More: https://t.co/r5vARLm6vT #Granville pic.twitter.com/4SmuuqIdmk

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 4, 2017

Berejiklian’s apology was attended by a number of survivors and family.

The Granville Train Disaster Association told the ABC they planned to issue a statement acknowledging the apology and thanking Ms Berejiklian, but made clear that the the legacy of the errors which had been made in the past still lingered:

However, they will also point out that the grievous decisions and actions of the governments of the 1970s which led to Australia’s worst preventable rail disaster, and the resulting injustices perpetrated on those directly impacted, can never be erased.

.@GladysB says the government acknowledges that the apology for the #Granville disaster has come 40 years too late https://t.co/r5vARLm6vT pic.twitter.com/OmRfkvtL2M

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 4, 2017

Source: ABC.

Photo: NSW Government.