As another family grieves over the loss of a young life, a train driver tells Cherie Howie his story. The boy was smack bang in the middle of the Ngāruawāhia rail bridge when the train driver first saw him. There the driver told his two companions, one a prospective new train driver, to stay put, climbed out of the cab and began walking towards the seventh wagon. A witness was looking underneath; the train driver, the train ballast crunching beneath his boots, was "hoping against hope" for a miracle. A week later he was back in the driver's cab and wondering how he would feel, especially the first time he crossed the rail bridge.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 24, 2018 00:56 UTC