When a person, or a child in the case of an 11-year-old girl in Ngaruawahia on Sunday, is hit by a train - it's not just their family and the community that suffers, the driver does as well.
There's little they can do to stop thousands of tonnes of freight train when someone runs out on the tracks except blast the horn.
Secretary of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union Wayne Butson says train drivers are terrified to cross the bridge at Ngaruawahia in case another child is killed.
"I'm really torn on this particular one. I think it's a complete and utter tragedy and every time someone is killed on the tracks it is complete waste... But the message is tracks are for trains. You wouldn't think of walking down the middle of a state highway.
"There are other interventions that can be done. I don't think slowing a train is necessarily the answer, it's already going very, very slow."
Trains go 25km/h across the Ngaruawahia rail bridge.
