Journalist Paul Makin spoke with Pilko from Sydney on the 40-year anniversary of the Granville tragedy.
Paul was the first reporter on the scene that terrible day, which became Australia’s worst rail disaster — killing 84 people and injuring 210.
“When I got off the train at Granville this morning, I didn’t think it would hit me,” the clearly emotional Paul told Pilko. “But when I walked off the train this morning… I had an incredible sense of sadness came over me… as it’s coming over me now.
“In all of the time that I’ve spoken about this, I have never got this emotional before.”
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Paul reported from the tragedy after following a police car to the scene.
“When I got here there was probably about three ambulances — not a huge amount of people at that stage.
“When we saw the bridge had come down on these trains immediately I thought what about the poor people in the cars — several cars had gone down with the bridge.
“But then the realisation that it had crushed carriages three and four… and it had crushed them down to their wheels, which meant that those people didn’t stand a chance.
“There was at least 20-30 seconds when the passengers would’ve come to a rest and gone, boy, we’re ok, everybody ok? Everybody’s ok. And then suddenly the concrete bridge came down on to that carriage killing all of those people instantly. Those people would’ve thought they made it, but they didn’t.
“That was the terrible thing.
“It took 48 hours to completely clear the scene.”
But Paul also spoke about the positive side…
“There is a positive side out of this tragedy… the bravery, the courage of rescuers. Rescuers had to dig with their hands, digging people out.
“It’s a day I’ll never forget.”
