How can you say the trains are safe when the brakes didn’t work?

Stuff reports:

“I’ve got no brakes, brace yourselves,” a train driver yelled to his passengers, seconds before the new Matangi unit smashed into a concrete buffer in Lower Hutt.

The front carriage was pushed two metres into the air as the train failed to stop at the end of the Melling line at 8.10am yesterday.

Very fortunate there wasn’t a serious loss of life.

Greater Wellington Regional Council, which owns Tranz Metro’s fleet of new Korean-built Matangi trains, said they had no history of brake troubles.

“The trains do not have a problem with their brakes,” council chairwoman Fran Wilde said, adding that the fleet was insured and still under warranty.

I’d say the brakes not working is a problem. And who cares about the warranty. I care about trains being able to stop.

Deborah Hume, KiwiRail’s general manager, passenger, said commuters were not at risk. “I take them [trains] myself and I believe they are safe.”

How can you say that? Unless the crash was obviously human error, then there is potentially a very serious problem.