The fatality occurred along the Germiston-Pretoria commuter rail line, a stretch that has repeatedly been flagged by community members.
Yesterday, yet another young woman was killed after being struck by a commuter train in Kempton Park.
It occurred at almost the exact same spot that a teenager died in a similar incident 13 months ago.
Safety assurances fail to prevent repeat tragedy
This despite commitments from Transport Minister Barbara Creecy in December that Prasa and Transnet would be engaged and held to account over unprotected railway lines, after her department confirmed that remedial plans were being demanded from rail entities following the first fatality.
The fatality occurred along the Germiston-Pretoria commuter rail line, a stretch of track infrastructure that has repeatedly been flagged by community members and DA ward councillor Simon Lapping as dangerously unsecured.
The Citizen reported on the incident at the time, following which the department of transport confirmed that the railway safety regulator had already submitted a response to the department and that Prasa was expected to provide a corrective plan.
More than a year later, the stretch of railway line remains unsecured.
Incomplete infrastructure leaves rail line exposed
The site is adjacent to an incomplete boundary wall that runs alongside the railway tracks, leaving pedestrians with direct access to an active rail line.
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The half-built wall forms part of Transnet’s rehabilitation programme in the area, which has remained unfinished for several years.
Lapping drew eerie similarities between the two incidents.
“Both were young women, both had earphones in their ears, they probably did not notice the oncoming danger,” he said.
“Then again, they should not have been able to access crossing the tracks at all.”
Community voices frustration and neglect
Local resident Ashika Pillay said that the community has tried for some time to get Prasa or the authorities to act.
“Everything we have done to try and get the wall completed or a pedestrian bridge put up and the railway line secured has fallen on deaf ears,” she said.
“The community is tired. We feel like we have been neglected because we are a small community and it feels like we have no voice. Traffic on this line was restarted without the railway being secured first. It seems like they had money to put the trains back on the line, but they didn’t have money to secure a community.”
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Blame shifting?
Lapping wrote to Creecy in December to warn of potentially dire consequences.
“Once authorities are warned that a site is unsafe and they allow operations to continue, they are no longer innocent bystanders to what follows,” he said.
To this end, Lapping has been trying to lay a criminal complaint at several police stations, but had little success with those on duty.
Transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi said it is the Prasa board that should be held accountable.
“The board is the executive authority of Prasa and, on such an operational matter, the board must hold the management of Prasa accountable,” Msibi said.
“The board would have to account on why nothing was done in the past year.”
Lapping said he does not accept that explanation. “The buck stops with the minister.”
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