Train Driver, 23, Let Mates Take Controls: Sra
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday December 30, 1998
He was a lonely country boy who spent hours talking on the CB radio, filling in the hours between shift work.
But it was 23-year-old Nathan Crewes's job as a train driver that enticed one CB listener, and sparked a serious case of train envy.
Crewes drove a very fast electric train.
The problem was he let his new CB mates drive it too, reaching speeds of 110 km/h, while hurling chocolates at commuters, according to the State Rail Authority.
Yesterday, Crewes, baby-faced and wearing a white shirt, took off his train driver's cap before taking the stand at the NSW Transport Appeals Board.
He had been sacked because he allegedly allowed unauthorised people to drive the electric train, and was before the board asking for reinstatement.
Crewes admitted that on two occasions about August 1997 he had allowed three people into his driver's cabin. But he denied allowing Robert Cruise, Brian Bisson and his girlfriend, Simone, to drive the train.
He said the trio had sat at the controls on August 12, 1997, but had never actually had control of the electric train as it sped towards Penrith.
However, his mates had taken photographs of their joy ride and later, after a falling out with Crewes, they took the images to his bosses at the SRA.
Crewes said he had been befriended by Cruise after he moved to Campbelltown, where the loneliness of a new place and shift work motivated him to buy a CB radio.
Cruise "kept on about" a trip and Crewes finally relented, he told the tribunal yesterday.
Crewes denied he had allowed his mates to ride his train as "an ego boost".
He also denied telling other lies to his friends, including that he was an army corporal, and could fly a helicopter.
But State Rail lawyers told the tribunal they could produce a video which would prove Crewes had allowed another friend, Joe, into his cabin.
This footage showed Crewes in action at the controls of his train, talking to Joe.
The tribunal was told that the film would prove Crewes had lied when he said the August joy rides were the only time he had allowed unauthorised people into his cabin.
At this point in the hearing, Crewes discontinued his appeal for reinstatement.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald
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