A man trying to use his partner's van to retrieve a stolen go kart caused last year's Kembla Grange train derailment, which left multiple people injured.
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The complete account of the October 2021 incident emerged on Wednesday after Allan Martin Simpson pleaded guilty in the Wollongong Local Court to eight charges.
Agreed facts tendered to the court said sometime after 11pm on October 19, the 48-year-old took his partner's Nissan Elgrand van from Flinders and drove it away - despite being banned from the roads.
Simpson was then seen on CCTV footage at Kembla Grange railway station about 2.37am on a mountain bike, which he rode onto the rail corridor.
He used bolt cutters on the fence to gain entry to Wollongong Kart Raceway and took out a go kart worth $3000 on a trolley, which he dragged onto the embankment next to the train tracks.
Simpson covered his face as he approached the railway station and fetched a large stick and wooden pole, using the former to reposition two CCTV cameras so they no longer faced the railway crossing on West Dapto Road.
He got into the Elgrand van and drove it onto the rail corridor to retrieve the go kart, but about 50 metres south of the rail crossing the van's axle got stuck on the train line.
This prompted Simpson to flag someone down on West Dapto Road and ask: "I've got my car stuck on the railway track, can you drive down and nudge me off?"
The pair tried to free the van without success; another person also got involved and called triple-0 for police help.
But about 4.09am a northbound passenger train came around the sweeping bend towards the vehicle, travelling at 102 km/h.
The driver spotted the vehicle from about 90 metres away and applied full braking and emergency braking systems, but it was too late - the train hit the van going about 90 km/h.
It forced the van into a signal structure, which toppled and brought down powerlines.
The first two carriages of the train came off the tracks, the first tipping onto its side and sliding along the ground.
The driver, a guard and 10 passengers were on board, with the driver and three passengers in the first carriage.
The driver suffered a L1 compression fracture of the spine, a bruised rib, collapsed lung and extensive bruising to hips, leg and back, while a passenger sustained a L2 compression fracture of the spine.
They were both taken to hospital for treatment, along with the train guard and another passenger who were suffering pain.
Simpson was arrested in a Dapto backyard on October 27, where he was found with a little over one gram of methamphetamine.
He told police he had been "stealing copper" and insisted he was going to hand himself in but was waiting to get his bike back from the repair shop first.
Simpson pleaded guilty to larceny, endangering the safety of a person on a railway, causing an obstruction to a locomotive, destroying or damaging property worth over $15,000, destroying or damaging property, committing a section 114 offence with a previous conviction, drug possession, and driving while disqualified.
He will be sentenced in the District Court at a later date.
Simpson was sentenced in the Local Court on Wednesday to four months' imprisonment on two unrelated charges of larceny and drug possession.
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