No ambulance for indigenous woman on train

Aboriginal woman Tanya Day was unintelligible when police officers woke her up on a regional Victorian train, but instead of calling an ambulance they arrested her for public drunkenness.

More than two weeks later, the 55-year-old died from a brain haemorrhage she suffered while in police custody after she was taken off the train at Castlemaine station.

Senior Constable Stephen Thomas and his partner, First Constable Aaron Towns, responded to calls from the train's conductor that she was "unruly" and intoxicated.

But while they didn't believe she was unruly or causing trouble, they decided to arrest her and take her off the train instead of calling an ambulance.

This was despite police guidelines requiring intoxicated people giving unintelligible responses to be taken to hospital or get urgent medical advice.

"No I didn't think medical assistance was required," Snr Const Thomas told an inquest into her death in Melbourne on Wednesday.

He said while he considered calling an ambulance, her demeanour was improving.

"As each minute ticked by her responses were getting better."

Sen Const Thomas also said he did not formally caution Ms Day that she was under arrest and said it was "the most low-key arrest I've ever done".

"I didn't formally say, 'you are now under arrest'. I just expressed I wanted her to come with me and I guess by compelling her to come with me that's a form of arrest," he said.

First Const Towns said he never considered calling an ambulance and it was decided there were no other options but to take Ms Day to the police station.

"The decision was made to take her back to the police station where we could make some calls, contact other services," he said.

The officers got family contacts from her phone and passed them onto other police to follow up.

At an earlier hearing, train conductor Shaun Irvine made sure police were called to speak to Ms Day because he was concerned for her safety.

She was not bothering other passengers but was deemed unruly as she appeared delirious and couldn't provide related answers to his questions, Mr Irvine said.

Police officers did not enter her cell until she was due to be released later that night, despite deciding she should be physically roused every 40 minutes.

CCTV footage showed she hit her head five times while in the cell. She died in hospital 17 days later from brain injuries.

Coroner Caitlin English is examining whether racism contributed to Ms Day's death.

The court was shown CCTV footage collected from the railway platform, which features V/Line staff and police entering the train and re-emerging with Ms Day.

The inquest will continue on Thursday with more footage from the police station expected to be shown.