Monday, March 08, 2004
Letter to the Editor
Malcolm Brown's article 'Search for a Safer Network' (Sydney Morning Herald, 8 Mar 04, p. 11) struck a chord with me. I was robbed and stabbed on a train travelling between Central and Redfern stations by a couple on the 2nd of February 2002.
I can agree with Brown's assertion that “a lot depends on how vulnerable a person looks”; I was 24 when I was attacked but had a thinner-than-average build & looked younger than I was. On the other hand, I think the article gives the reader the mistaken impression that these crimes only happen late at night. This isn't so; I was attacked at 11am on a Satuday morning.
I really hope the new security arrangements are more responsive than their Chubb predecessors. Like Ms Manu (mentioned at the end of the article), I was lucky enough to have another passenger help me when I called out. He administered first aid & went & got the security guards, who stood puzzled when they got to my carriage, despite the blood on the seat & floor. I had to yell instructions at them to get Police and Ambulance attendance.
In the end it wasn't Redfern station's 67 cameras or two permanent security guards that caught the pair that had attacked me, it was an unrelated Police patrol who caught them by chance robbing people on Bondi Beach a couple of hours later that day.
So what'd I learn from the experience? Don't make it look like you're from out of town, don't sit anywhere that you can be cornered in, if the carriage empties out leaving you alone - move, that Sydney trains should have panic buttons installed and that the only thing passengers can do - like the article said - is look out for each other.
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