A Melbourne mother is demanding answers after her legally blind daughter became trapped in closing train doors and was separated from her guide dog, which was dragged along the platform as the train pulled away.
Eyewitness Alita said she watched the dog running beside the departing train at Flinders Street before another woman raced along the platform, grabbed its lead and pulled it free.
Erin said her daughter Lucy, who has less than 10 per cent vision, called her after the frightening incident.
“She opened the phone call by saying, ‘Mum, I’m okay, but something quite bad has happened,’” Erin told Jacqui Felgate on 3AW this afternoon.
“Of course, my mind went to a million places. She started to tell me what had happened. She was quite composed, which surprised me, and then she started to break down.
“It was absolutely harrowing. I was so upset last night. I could hardly sleep, and today I’m angry and I want answers.”
Erin said Lucy was boarding with her guide dog when the train doors closed on her back and backpack.
“She had nowhere to go. She couldn’t go backwards; she could only go forward into the train,” she said.
“As she went forward, the lead was caught in the door, so she let go of the lead.
“Thank goodness there was that angel on the platform — the lady who grabbed the lead and actually pulled it out of the door.”
The dog was forced to run beside the moving train before the woman managed to pull its lead from the doors.
“The lead’s not broken. The lady actually had to pull it out of the door,” she said, revealing it had escaped with several broken toenails
Several people reportedly pressed an emergency button, while two Metro employees on the platform allegedly signalled for the train to stop. But Erin says it still continued along to Southern Cross Station.
“People pushed the emergency button for it to stop, and it didn’t stop,” she said.
“Evidently, there were two Metro employees on the platform signalling for the train to stop, and it did not stop. It continued around to Southern Cross Station. It did not stop. So I’m really angry.”
Erin said the consequences could have very easily been worse.
“That could have been a child’s arm hanging out of that door. That could have been a child between the platform and the train,” she said.
“It’s bad enough that it was our beautiful guide doggy, but it could have been so much worse if that lady had not grabbed the lead out of that door.”
Passengers stayed with Lucy and helped reunite her with the dog. One woman who had been travelling in the opposite direction accompanied her to Southern Cross, returned with her to Flinders Street and then continued with her to her next destination.
“I’m just so thankful,” Erin said.
“I think my daughter has contact numbers for these people and I’ll be contacting them in the next few days to buy them a bunch of flowers or something. It doesn’t seem enough, but it would be a small gesture to say thank you.”
Erin said Lucy had initially blamed herself for failing to see the doors closing.
“She said, ‘Maybe I should have seen that the doors were closing. Maybe I just didn’t see it,’” she said.
“I said, ‘But what if you were totally blind? If you had no vision at all, this could happen to someone like that. Just because you have a little bit, this shouldn’t have happened. This should not have happened.’”
Lucy and her dog are now recovering, but Erin feared the experience could damage her daughter’s confidence using public transport.
“There were so many things that should have worked, but she was let down, and I want to know why,” she said.
“She’s okay. She’s obviously shaken up.
“It’s just a matter of hoping this doesn’t affect her and make her not want to get back on a train.”
Transport Victoria has been contacted for comment.
Originally published as Legally blind woman separated from guide dog in ‘absolutely harrowing’ incident on Melbourne train