Talk:List of rail accidents in New Zealand

Inclusion Criteria

What are the inclusion criteria for this list? The term Accident is very broad and there is little other guidance given in the current article, as at 1 February 2011, about what events to include. As a consequence, this may lead to article bias towards recent events that make the local news, because source information is readily available. Older events, such as those prior to 1990, are generally not so readily accessible, because the information is not electronically available.

In one rail history book, a distinction is made between Accidents, Mishaps and Near Misses. In that book, accidents generally involved injury or death or else significant damage to rolling stock and trackside facilities, or notable failures of equiment and safety systems or a risk to life. Derailments, breakdowns, fires, equipment failures, shunting incidents as well as collisions with track debris or at level crossings, especially where nobody was seriously injured are usually described as mishaps, while near-misses describe those events which could have been a lot worse than they were, such as runaway trains that were stopped before an accident occurred. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 10:19, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

PS: On closer reading of the article I realised that between 1950 and 1990 that almost only the fatal accidents are listed and the source of most of those the entries is the very same book I alluded to above! Surely if that source also considers a broader range of incidents than fatalities to be accidents then those events should all be included on this list. Otherwise, if the list is to be limited to fatalities then that should be reflected in the title. In the absence of any contrary opinion I will assume a broad definition for a railway accident. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 11:45, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

My general inclusion criteria when creating this article were:

• At least one death or 10 injuires to those aboard the train (whether legally or not), OR
• Involved two trains, OR
• Resulted in a significant TAIC investigation

They do not include level crossing or pedestrian accidents unless it falls into one of the criteria above. The also don't include train accidents caused by other disasters.

This is the general rule with most train accident articles on Wikipedia. Lcmortensen (mailbox) 10:06, 3 February 2011 (UTC)

While I appreciate you have applied your own criteria to starting the article, the inclusion criteria for others wanting to develop the article further are not articulated within the article. Thus it is open for others to include events that do not fit your above criteria. I also note that the Trains Wikiproject [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/Manual of style|MOS] have somewhat different inclusion criteria for notable events, such as accidents, being:

• Events that served as important turning points in rail transport history.
• Accidents where a significant number of casualties or a significant amount of property damage occur (this is purposely not nailed down to a specific number for either criterion).
• Accidents that form the basis for rail transport legislation.
• Events that have been labeled as historically significant by reputable and verifiable external sources.

Your first and second criteria are stricter than that for the Trains Wikiproject. To me the Trains Wikiproject seem to offer a better set of criteria. Using TAIC investigation as a standard could potentially lead to some events being included that are not accidents but are near-misses. For example: Your criteria would suggest the 4 September 2008 Fruitvale Road platform overrun (TAIC Report 08-109) is an accident because TAIC made a significant general safety recommendation relating to level crossings close to stations. Also the TAIC is a fairly recent investigating body, so some sort of pre-TAIC criteria would assist contributors. I presume that judicial and similar inquiry findings would be a likely pre-TAIC equivalents. As to what events might subsequently prove to be historically significant or a turning point in history, that may take some time to tell. For example, rail operators have been very reluctant to install pedestrian crossing gates until years of lobbying by relatives of a crossing victim convinced authorities that gates were important at busy pedestrian crossings. There was no TAIC report in that case, only a coronor's finding. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 01:51, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Wairarapa Connection fatality

There was a fatal accident involving a north-bound Wairarapa Connection train in Masterton at the level crossing near the intersection of Ngaumutawa Road and Upper Manaia Road in early December 1997 (IIRC). The fatality was the principal of the local Solway School who was struck by the train whilst driving across the track on his way to the school. The train involved was, IIRC, #1608. I remember years ago reading an article online about the accident (from the Wairarapa Times-Age I believe) but it seems to have disappeared into the ether, so I can't confirm details such as the exact date. -- Matthew25187 (talk) 11:19, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:List of rail accidents by country which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 20:01, 19 July 2016 (UTC)