Mrs Bui and her daughter, Chau Bui (17), of Sydney, were tourists visiting Dunedin and were crossing the bridge beside the Dunedin Railway Station when the accident occurred on February 12 last year.
The flap of a container on a freight train passing beneath the bridge popped up, pulling part of the bridge down and sending Mrs Bui's daughter tumbling to the tracks below.
Mrs Bui was on an undamaged section of the bridge and was shaken but not injured.
However, in an email to the Otago Daily Times this week, Mrs Bui said she and her daughter were the "forgotten victims" of the accident"I will never forget the moment of witnessing my daughter's horrific fall from the collapsing bridge.
It was a near-death experience for her," she said.
Her daughter was taken to Dunedin Hospital and treated for minor injuries following the accident, but Mrs Bui said a visit to her family doctor in Sydney days later found more extensive bruising, internal bleeding and a minor head injury.
Her daughter still bore scars from the ordeal, while Mrs Bui's wounds were emotional - stress and anxiety, prescribed sleeping pills and counselling after watching her daughter's fall, she said.
Now, 22 months after the collision, they were yet to receive an apology or compensation, she said.
In her email, Mrs Bui claimed Department of Labour staff told her their investigation had found a mechanical fault on the container which caused the flap to deploy.
The container was owned by a Chinese company, leased for use in New Zealand, and department staff had decided no individual New Zealand party could be prosecuted, she said.
No complete account of the cause of the accident has been made public, despite repeated requests by the ODT.
KiwiRail - at the time owned by Toll - owned the train and employed its crew, while South Freight, a division of Port Otago, loaded the container.
The ownership of the container was not clear.
However, confusion over the cause of the flap's deployment continued yesterday.
Department service manager Mark Murray, of Dunedin, rejected Mrs Bui's claim, saying in a statement to the ODT a locking mechanism on the container had "operated as designed".
"For reasons unknown, it unlocked and there was no secondary restraining system in place," he said.
KiwiRail spokesman Kevin Ramshaw said an investigation had found the load was not "adequately prepared for its journey", but responsibility for that had been "the subject of lengthy negotiations between the three parties involved".
When asked by the ODT yesterday if Mrs Bui deserved an apology and compensation, all parties were sympathetic, but noncommittal.
Mr Ramshaw said KiwiRail was focused on completing negotiations over an offer of settlement towards the $272,255 cost of replacing the bridge, owned by the Dunedin City Council.
KiwiRail did not accept "the major portion of responsibility" for the accident, but agreed to lead the offer to the council last month on behalf of all parties involved - KiwiRail, Port Otago and the container's owner.
An apology or compensation could also be considered by all three parties together, if Mrs Bui made contact, he said.
"We would sympathise with the woman and her daughter and the fact there hasn't been some form of apology. That's one of the consequences of a prolonged legal dispute . . . People tend to choose their words very carefully.
"We would have to look at it. Looking at it doesn't mean to say we would agree with it necessarily," Mr Ramshaw said.
Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket said the extent of his company's involvement was loading the container.
"We are not the owner of the bridge and we are not the owner of the train. We very much regret her position, but that wouldn't come through to us."
Mr Murray referred questions of compensation to ACC, and ACC spokesman David Balham said injured tourists were entitled to financial assistance for treatment and support, but could not sue for personal injury.
