Gauteng carnage as trains collide

ÜGEN VOS and CHRIS BATHEMBU

JOHANNESBURG - Every rail commuter’s nightmare became stark reality yesterday when 302 passengers in Gauteng were injured in two massive train crashes involving four trains.

Eleven people were rushed to hospital in a serious condition yesterday morning after two passenger trains collided near Lenasia, south of Johannesburg; 160 others were treated for less severe injuries and shock. Among the injured were two heavily pregnant women.

This was followed by a second train crash in the vicinity of Springs on the East Rand in the late afternoon that injured a further 131 commuters. This crash resulted from a head-on collision of two passenger trains.

Speaking from the scene of the second accident, Ekurhuleni Emergency Medical Services spokesman Rogers Maimela said two men were in a serious condition; the rest were being treated for shock.

ER24’s Werner Vermaak said the cause of the head-on collision was still unclear, but more victims were believed to be trapped inside the wreckage. A temporary medical station had been set up in conjunction with other rescue organisations, and patients with injuries ranging from minor to severe were being stabilised there before being sent to hospital.

Rescue efforts were still ongoing last night.

Even as emergency personnel battled to tend to the injured on the East Rand, considerable confusion still reigned over the Johannesburg crash. Some officials said two trains travelling in opposite directions had collided head-on, while others maintained they had been travelling in the same direction, but that the correct following distance had not been kept.

Another Metrorail passenger train also derailed after colliding with a stop block at the Naledi staging yard in Soweto less than a week ago, but there were no injuries or fatalities.

Metrorail said it would assess the risk to determine when services could resume. In the interim, buses and taxis were being hastily arranged to ferry stranded commuters. Spokesman Sibusiso Ngomane said an inquiry would be set up to determine the cause of the accident, but could not say how the closure of the route would affect train services.

Safety conditions on the country’s bustling railway lines have been in the spotlight since another accident claimed the lives of Ekurhuleni councillors Andre and Rika Hunter last month.

The Hunters were among four people killed when a train smashed into their rented VW Polo at a crossing near Stellenbosch “ripping it to pieces”. Reports from the accident scene indicated the impact had slammed their vehicle into the power boxes alongside the crossing and rolled it into a ditch next to the railway line.

It was the second accident at that particular crossing within the space of three weeks – in December last year another couple survived a close brush with death when a different train smashed into their vehicle.

The Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) voiced its concern over what it perceives as lack of regard for the safety of commuters, which general secretary Dennis George says is “totally unacceptable”.

Fedusa is the largest politically non-aligned trade union federation in South Africa, representing over 400 000 members from a variety of sectors in industry.