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Ray Anglesey was a bloodied mess but he was able to tell a firefighter who had climbed into the locomotive how to turn off the engine.
He had a broken neck and was carried out a side window on a stretcher.
"I remember blood oozing out of my head, which was split open, but I wasn't even hurting," Mr Anglesey said.
"I could see these legs standing above me and Jarvis – I still remember his name – asked me how to turn off the engine.
"Alarm bells were going off everywhere … I was trying to get my brain into gear.
"I must have been drifting in and out at this stage."
'All hell broke loose'
Now 73, the veteran train driver was taken from the Kalgoorlie crash site by ambulance to hospital and airlifted to Perth, where he awoke almost two weeks later.
It was the beginning of a two-year recovery.
The events of February 22, 2021, became clearer during a three-week stay in hospital in Perth.
A road train, comprised of a prime mover and three trailers, had driven into the path of a 249-metre-long freight train with one locomotive and 12 wagons.
The train was travelling at about 37 kilometres per hour and had sounded its horn three times before approaching the level crossing.
The truck was travelling at about 70kph.
Mr Anglesey said "all hell broke loose" when the collision occurred.
"When we hit the truck I thought, 'Bloody hell,'" he said.
"I grabbed the radio and I can't recall if I got emergency out."
The force of the collision resulted in the derailment of the locomotive, which came to a stop about 40m from the crossing.
The truck's prime mover uncoupled from its trailers, left the road and came to a stop about 50m from the crossing.
An investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau later found the truck driver was reattaching a dash-mounted mobile phone cradle inside his cab and did not see the flashing lights until it was too late.
The truck driver was not injured, but Mr Anglesey and another train driver were seriously hurt after being thrown around inside the locomotive cabin due to the rapid de-acceleration triggered by the impact.
'Cleansing mechanism'
Mr Anglesey said it was the most serious incident in his career in the rail industry, which began in his native New Zealand in 1968.
He has been driving trains in Kalgoorlie since 2004 and has been involved in some traumatic experiences, including instances involving suicide by train.
"The railways have always provided counselling to us," Mr Anglesey said.
"My best counsellor has always been my wife … I knew the support was there."
He said he developed different coping mechanisms over the years.
"The worst part of a crossing accident — I used to feel real dirty, very dirty,"
"I'd go home and stand in the shower for 30 or 40 minutes.
"When I look back on it, it was part of the healing process — or that's how I looked at it.
"It was a cleansing mechanism, as such.
"This is the first time I've spoken to someone outside of rail about it."
Helping out the 'idiots'
After recovering from his injuries Mr Anglesey returned to work as a support officer with Aurizon, Australia's largest freight operator.
"At the time I was thinking of retiring, but that two years of recovery — I more or less looked at that as retirement and I didn't like it," he said.
"You can only read so many books and watch so much TV … I reckon going back to work has been a big help to my full recovery."
Now Mr Anglesey is part of an Aurizon safety campaign calling for motorists to take more care at level crossings.
The campaign has been launched months after a 29-year-old truck driver from Victoria was charged following a near-miss with a freight train at a level crossing at Norseman in WA's Goldfields.
"I want to help – oh, can I say it? – idiots on the road," Mr Anglesey said.
"Hopefully I can help those buggers — it just seems to be getting worse and worse.
"Signals just don't seem to register with people the dangers right in front of them."
Aurizon managing director Andrew Harding said the safety message was delivered by those directly impacted by level crossing events, including train crews and first responders.
"When our train crew see a vehicle or a person on the tracks, they can't simply stop or swerve to miss," he said.
"A fully loaded train carrying freight can take two kilometres to stop, even when the emergency brakes are applied.
"Motorists are putting their lives on the line – and potentially our train crew – if they do not remain vigilant and take that extra care when approaching level crossings."