During the morning two days ago a train at Town Hall broke down, leading to delays across the train network.

I would go on about it and how our network is bad, but to be honest every passing year this feels more and more like business as usual. It’s disappointing, but not unexpected, which is more concerning than the train breaking down.

Well, that’s what I think, but I digress.

The train I was on broke down. I was at Sydenham Station when it happened so I moved to exit the station. Before I exited the station, I saw that one of the lines heading to the city (specifically the train heading to Bondi Junction) appeared as though it was still running, so I asked one of the station staff if it was. This was confirmed, which was good as I only needed to get to Central.

I turned around. Shortly after I found myself moving vertically toward the ground. Between turning around and falling I had taken half a step. I didn’t realise I was falling until I was most of the way through the fall.

Unsurprisingly, it hurt. My left knee didn’t like it too much, but it was fine after a few hours. My right hand liked it less and is still a bit sore, but it is improving.

Some people came up to me to see if I was okay. I said I was.

I looked behind me and saw that I had fallen over a shopping trolley. It was one of the ones with two wheels that people often use. The person who it belonged to stared at me for a short period, then walked off into an elevator they were waiting for. No words; just a stare before leaving.

Someone said I should file something. I said there was no point as it wouldn’t go anywhere. I’m not sure if that was the right or wrong thing to do.

So I limped away, down the stairs and to the platform where the train running to Bondi Junction would be stopping. I walked to one end of the platform and in the process saw the person with their shopping trolley. They saw me and slightly moved away. Still nothing said.

Now I would’ve had this written up on the day it happened, but suffice to say that the rest of the day became an adventure of sorts which led to me getting sent home with pay. In the delay, I’ve had time to think about the incident.

I am certain that the main reason as to why I tripped was due to the person having their trolley nearly against me, despite there being enough space around for them not needing to. There were a lot of people in the area, but there was still plenty of space. Had the person bothered to pay attention to their surroundings, falling over would’ve been less likely to occur.

That the person wasn’t thinking is frustrating, albeit not surprising. What really makes me angry about the whole thing is that they didn’t bother to say anything and see if I was okay.

I don’t understand why someone would think that would be okay.
I don’t understand why someone would think that the best thing to do after not paying attention to where they had a trolley is to stare, then walk away.