January 4: On This Day in World History … briefly
The crash occurred at 8.58am with the train travelling at 78 km/hr.
2018: Kroonstad train crash kills 21
On 4 January 2018, a passenger train operated by Shosholoza Meyl collided with a truck on a level crossing at Geneva Station between Hennenman and Kroonstad, Free State, South Africa. The train was derailed and seven of the twelve carriages caught fire. Twenty-one people were killed and 254 people were injured. At about 9.15am local time, a passenger train, operated by Shosholoza Meyl, carrying 429 passengers, was travelling from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg when it collided with a truck on the Geneva Station level crossing, around 200km south-west of Johannesburg. Witnesses stated that the truck failed to stop at the level crossing, despite the train driver giving warning by blowing the horn. The truck, along with its two trailers, was dragged for around 400m, and a car being transported on the train was also crushed by the derailed train.
The locomotive hauling the train was Class C30EMP diesel-electric locomotive № 3018, owned by Sheltam. The locomotive and 12 carriages of the train were derailed; seven carriages caught fire. Overhead electrical wires had snapped during the collision, causing the fire. First responders were local farmers and their workers who rushed to the collision site with fire-fighting equipment and began pulling people out of the burning carriages. Eyewitness and farmer Willie du Preez, said that the fire began 10 minutes after the collision, with the first flames behind the locomotive which spread towards the derailed carriages and trapped passengers. Twenty-one people were killed and 254 were injured. At around 20.50pm, the search and rescue was called off. The truck driver survived the collision and tried to flee the scene but was arrested and taken to a hospital. Police opened a manslaughter case against the driver. The driver of the truck tested negative for alcohol at a police station.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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