Litigious Driver

Strange lawsuit (and hopefully it will be thrown out). Suicide by train seems alluringly-popular there these days (even as a tourist, I got inconvenienced by it):

THE driver of the train that killed Greg Maddock, the boss of Queensland government-owned power company Energex, is suing the suicide victim's estate.

Former Queensland Rail train driver Paul Jackson, considered the forgotten casualty of the electricity crisis and its subsequent fallout, is seeking $400,000 in damages.

He has detailed in court documents his tortured memory of Mr Maddock's suicide at a Brisbane train station on September 17, 2004.

Mr Maddock was under an expenses probe at the time and dealing with political pressure over a damning review of the state of the network.

...Before the 2004 state election, then premier Peter Beattie and now Deputy Premier Paul Lucas blamed blackouts across southeast Queensland on summer storms, not a deteriorating power network.

A subsequent independent review revealed the network was overloaded and massively underfunded, prompting the Government and Energex to commit billions of dollars in upgrades and implement a string of reforms.

During the crisis, Mr Maddock - who as Energex chief executive had sought more funding from the Government - came under scrutiny over expenses which, while approved by Energex chairman Don Nissen, were later deemed inappropriate.

The 50-year-old married father of two committed suicide amid an ongoing investigation that led to Mr Nissen's resignation and sent Energex into freefall.

Mr Maddock's widow, Lyn, yesterday referred calls to her lawyer, who was unavailable. But she said: "I do feel sorry for the driver but I don't think going after me is the right way to go. He's not the only victim."

...Mr Jackson, 39, struggled to return to work after the incident, later quitting as a driver, and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The court documents state that Mr Jackson has difficulty in relationships, finds it hard to socialise without the incident being raised, and sees Energex signs and workers as a constant reminder.