By TOM HAYES
AN alleged attack of a 49-year-old Traralgon woman travelling on V/Line’s Gippsland Line has intensified calls from The Nationals, for the state government to act on passenger safety.
Speaking in state Parliament, The Nationals’ Member for Eastern Victorian, Melina Bath said the state government must significantly boost the number of Protected Services Officers (PSOs) at Gippsland train services.
Ms Bath told state Parliament about Traralgon’s Naomi Sheppard, who fell victim to an alleged attack, which led to a heart attack.
“While Ms Sheppard tried to protect herself, the alleged assailant’s actions violently dislodged her implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) embedded in her chest,” Ms Bath explained.
“The heart regulating device malfunctioned, causing Ms Sheppard to go into cardiac arrest – following local emergency medical treatment, she was transferred to Melbourne’s Heart Hospital where she spent one week.
“The incident, which was not isolated, could have cost Ms Sheppard her life, meanwhile the alleged assailant walked away without capture.
“V/Line staff deserve to work safely without harassment and regional passengers should not have to endure any level of verbal or physical treatment on the service.”
On Thursday, March 12, Ms Sheppard, along with Ms Bath and Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron, told her story, which has left her traumatised.
Following a weekend in Melbourne, Ms Sheppard caught the Gippsland Line back to Traralgon before midday on Sunday, February 9.
After taking her seat by the window on the already “packed” train, Ms Sheppard was “aggressively” approached by another woman when the train arrived at another metropolitan station.
“(She) aggressively asked me if I could move my things, using some colourful language, and I did move my belongings so that she could sit in the seat next to me,” Ms Sheppard said.
Another train passenger that witnessed the incident informed the conductor of the woman; however, nothing was done to change the situation. Ms Sheppard said she felt intimidated for the entire train journey.
“When we were approaching the regional stations for her to hop off, she was once again aggressive towards me. I moved so she could get out of the seat,” Ms Sheppard said.
“After some more colourful language, she chose to spit in my face. At that stage, I tried to defend myself.”
When the woman tried to leave the train, Ms Sheppard asked for the conductor to be called, as well as the police. But things soon escalated once again.
“At that stage, she did actually grab me in general armpit region and at that stage I believe she felt my internal defibrillator and as she felt that she actually tried to turn the defibrillator in my chest,” Ms Sheppard said.
“Straight away, I knew that something was happening, I was quite unwell immediately.”
The conductor arrived at the scene as the woman left the train, but again Ms Sheppard remained uncertain as to why they could not do anything.
At that time, Ms Sheppard identified she was having a heart attack and had to sit down.
“The conductor then approached me and assured that it wasn’t personal, as she had been demonstrating antisocial behaviour towards somebody else on the train prior to myself, which was quite disheartening when nothing was done because we were closer to a metro station, and I… was assuming that she would have been removed at a further station along,” she said.
Ms Sheppard asked the conductor to organise police and ambulance at Traralgon Train Station, after nothing was done on board.
Once she arrived at Traralgon, Ms Sheppard’s husband had to call Triple Zero (000) as no ambulance was on the scene. She arrived at the hospital at around 3.20pm.
Further tests at Latrobe Regional Health showed that she was suffering from a heart attack, which prompted her transfer to The Victorian Heart Hospital.
After more tests, Ms Sheppard spent a week in hospital, two weeks off work from her own business, and she says she is still recovering and isn’t at full capacity following what was diagnosed as a stress induced heart attack.
Ms Sheppard said she felt “devastated and disgusted” after knowing that no one was available to come to her aid.
“I assumed that there were PSOs at stations, obviously regional there are not, which I have just found out. It’s as if we are second-class citizens in regional compared to our metro counterparts,” she said.
Since the incident, police have not yet confirmed the identity of the woman.
Ms Bath described Ms Sheppard’s experience as “truly shocking” and must serve as a wake-up call to the state government on the rising crime and violence occurring on regional public transport.
“Surely when you hop on the train in Melbourne to come home to Traralgon you would expect that you would arrive home safely – but that was the absolute opposite for what happened to Naomi Sheppard recently,” Ms Bath told media last Wednesday (March 12).
“It is unacceptable that one individual can perform multiple acts of aggressions in one two-hour journey and not be apprehended.
“There is only two PSOs stationed at Traralgon at any given time, which is woefully inadequate. In contrast, every one of Melbourne’s 212 train stations are protected by PSOs, while only four regional stations state-wide have a PSO presence.”
Victoria Police confirmed that one of the four regional PSO hubs is at Traralgon Railway Station, detecting and deterring antisocial behaviour from 6pm until the last train each day.
Despite this, a Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed that “there are no plans to change existing PSO arrangements on the Gippsland train line”.
PSOs can be alerted to incidents in a number of way, including calls via 000 (Triple Zero), reports from the public, or calls from other PSOs or police. They are also known to detect and respond to crime on the spot as they unfold.
“PSOs can request a person’s name and address, arrest and detain persons, search people and property, seize items such as weapons, graffiti implements, drugs and alcohol, issue infringement notices, and issue a direction to ‘move on’ from the area,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.
“In addition, Transit police officers roam the public transport network, and local police also carry out regular patrols of regional station precincts to ensure people using public transport are not only safe, but feel safe.”
In 2022, Victoria Police received funding for an extra 50 PSOs over two years.
