Finding into death of Martin Yim
Deceased
Martin Yim
Demographics
70y, male
Date of death
2007-09-04
Finding date
2015-09-29
Cause of death
Multiple injuries from motor vehicle impact with tram
AI-generated summary
Martin Yim, a 70-year-old man, died from multiple injuries sustained when struck by a tram at a pedestrian crossing in Melbourne. The coroner found that Mr Yim's death resulted primarily from his own failure to comply with a red pedestrian light while crossing. However, a systems error contributed to the accident. The tram stop had been relocated 15 metres north of the crossing in July 2007, changing established warning protocols. Previously, trams would stop near the crossing and sound a gong before departing. The new position meant the tram reached significant speed (approximately 20 kmph) before reaching the crossing, leaving the inexperienced tram driver insufficient time to brake. The coroner found the pedestrian crossing was not safely designed to accommodate high pedestrian volumes and poor pedestrian compliance. Key lessons: infrastructure changes at high-risk locations require concurrent safety improvements; tram driver protocols must adapt to new stop configurations; crossing capacity must match pedestrian demand.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Contributing factors
- Relocation of tram stop 15 metres north of pedestrian crossing
- Insufficient warning time due to tram acceleration over 15-metre distance before crossing
- Inadequate pedestrian crossing width (5 metres) for high pedestrian volumes
- Change in established tram warning protocol (gong no longer sounded adjacent to crossing)
- High volume of pedestrian traffic with poor compliance with traffic signals
- Poor design of pedestrian crossing infrastructure relative to pedestrian demand
- Pedestrian failure to comply with red pedestrian signal
- Tram driver inexperience (only 5 weeks qualified)
Coroner's recommendations
- When departing from the West Casino tram stop in a southerly direction, tram drivers should be directed to use their tram warning gong continuously until the driver's cabin has passed over the pedestrian crossing situated to the south of the platform ramp, and travel at a speed not exceeding 10 kmph until that time
- Review by VicRoads of VicRoads Design note RDN 32 (Accessible Tram stops in Medians) having regard to the lessons emerging from the investigation into this accident
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