Louise Cairns Award

The TrackSAFE NZ “Louise Cairns Rail Safety Award” was established to support individuals undertaking academic research that contributes towards improving safety around the New Zealand rail corridor and/or reducing the levels of harm caused by collisions between trains and vehicles and/or pedestrians.

Background

Louise Cairns was killed in 1993 when a truck drove through operating level crossing alarms and into the side of a passenger train. Joanna Peat and Wendy Gilbert were also killed in the incident and a further eight people were seriously injured. This Award was set up in Louise’s memory in 2013.

Sienna MacArthur-Beadle wins Louise Cairns Award in 2022 for her research on how storytelling affects young people's attitudes toward pedestrian safety around railway tracks. Sienna’s research concluded that students who heard personal stories were more likely to view certain risk-taking behaviours as unsafe and reported being less likely to take risks around railway tracks in the future. Sienna now works for KiwiRail’s Safety, Health & Wellbeing team, and has continued her work in community rail safety.

Eligibility

This Award is open to all New Zealand citizens or permanent residents who have resided in New Zealand for at least three years immediately preceding the year of selection and who are studying at a registered New Zealand university or other approved tertiary organisation.

Value

The Award of $5,000 is for a period of one year and is offered each year.

Selection criteria

Applicants will be selected based on the degree to which the research has practical relevance to the New Zealand rail industry by:

increasing the knowledge of the human factors affecting public behaviour around the rail corridor; and/or
contributing to an improvement in safety at level crossings through innovative or new engineering technology.

Judging

The judging panel will comprise the Board of Directors of TrackSAFE NZ or their nominees.

Entry process

Send a descriptive summary of your entry (up to 600 words) to tracksafe@tracksafe.co.nz. The summary should include the key factors that have contributed towards demonstrating how the entry meets the judging criteria.

Applications should be signed o by an appropriate academic supervisor. Entry must be in PDF format and send to tracksafe@tracksafe.co.nz by 1 December. The winner will be notified by 1 March.

Terms and conditions

The entrant accepts and agrees to the following terms and conditions:

The entrant has obtained the permission of all relevant parties to proceed with the entry.
The entrant accepts that the judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
The judges undertake to observe the confidentiality of entries and to declare or avoid any possible conflict of interest.
The judges reserve the right not to make an award where, in the judges’ opinion, no entry of adequate standard has been received

A downloadable sheet about the Louise Cairns Award is available here.