Stones used to 'stop' train
2002-05-26 14:06
Maputo - The worst rail disaster in Mozambique's history occurred after a railroad worker used four large stones to unsuccessfully keep a packed passenger train from sliding down a hill, a railway official said on Sunday.
Meanwhile, funerals began for some of the 196 people killed in
the crash, and health officials pleaded for blood donations for the 400 others who were injured.
The crash of a train carry passengers and freight to South
Africa happened at about 05:00 on Saturday at the town of Moamba, about 60km north of the capital, Maputo.
The train developed a mechanical fault as it tried to climb a
hill, so the driver disconnected the passenger section of the
train, which was already partially up the hill, from the freight
train, said Antonio Libombo, an official with the Mozambican
Railway Company.
The driver wedged four large stones under the wheels of the
passenger train to keep it from sliding backward and then drove the freight train back to a nearby station, Libombo said. However, the stones gave way and the passenger train barrelled down the tracks into the freight train, he said.
"An investigation is still under way," Transport Minister Tomas Salomao said. "But at first glance, the crash was caused by a human error."
Rescue workers toiled furiously throughout Saturday to free many victims that had remained trapped in the wreckage. By Sunday all the bodies had been removed and the wreckage was cleared, Salomao told Radio Mozambique. Regular train service was to restart on the tracks soon, he said.
President Joachim Chissano declared the accident a national
tragedy and declared three days of mourning. He planned to visit
the crash site on Sunday.
Blood needed
Chissano asked Mozambicans to donate blood for the injured.
Centres were set up throughout the capital and by Sunday morning
450 people had donated.
However, government officials said much more was needed since
Mozambique's blood banks had been severely depleted even before the accident.
Chissano has cut short a visit to his home town on Saturday to rush back to Maputo to tour the hospital where the injured were being treated.
"Mozambicans, my fathers, everybody, let us provide assistance
to the injured people," he said as he toured the hospital on Saturday.
Funerals for some of the victims were being held on Sunday in
Moamba and several border towns. Local civic organisations were
helping with burial arrangements and many people in this
impoverished southern African country had gathered money to help buy coffins for the victims.
The railroad has also promised financial assistance to the
families of those killed.
Difficult to match up bodies
Mozambican television showed footage on Saturday of a pile of
bodies lying next to the train tracks, and soldiers and police
searching for more victims.
"When we got here, passengers were dying in our arms because we could not get them out quickly enough," a police officer told the television station.
"Everything is destroyed, there are bodies that have been cut in half and we don't know how to match them up, there are severed
limbs," said the officer, who was not identified.
The train, which can hold more than 1 000 people, was popular with Mozambicans heading to South Africa for the weekend to shop. Most of dead and injured were thought to be Mozambican.
Many of the injured were taken to the hospital in Maputo in
private cars and some died along the way.
Fatal railway crashes blamed on human error are fairly frequent in Mozambique. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA