Car 'ripped apart' near Spier
2009-01-06 08:49
Stellenbosch - A badly-shocked train commuter told on Monday afternoon how he saw a white car rip into pieces in the air after it was hit by a train.
Donovan Jansen, from Cloetesville, was sitting near the front of the train when it hit a white Volkswagen Polo. Almost simultaneously, two bodies flew through the air.
Two men and two women - visitors from Gauteng who were staying at a Cape Town hotel - were believed to have died on impact when the train hit their rented car at the Vlaeberg crossing at 15:05.
The crossing is on Vlaeberg Road, a turn-off from the R310 near the Spier wine estate outside Stellenbosch.
The four deceased, of whom three were in their fifties, were presumably on a wine-tasting tour.
When reporters arrived at the scene, two bodies lay covered up in a ditch next to the car wreck a few metres from the crossing. These were the bodies that Jansen had seen thrown into the air.
Car 'was ripped apart'
Jansen was visibly shocked as he told how the train had hit the car.
He said he had stuck his head out of the train window because of the heat, and closed his eyes. "When I opened them, I only saw the white car and the train hitting it in the middle.
"The next moment, the car was ripped apart."
A short distance from where he was speaking, rescue workers were trying to remove two more bodies from the car.
Two broken power boxes, electricity poles and cables lay at the scene. It appeared the car had hit the power boxes after impact and then had fallen into the ditch next to the railway line.
Jansen said the train driver immediately hit the brakes. "The whole train shook until we stopped moving."
Second accident in three weeks
It was the second accident at the crossing in three weeks.
A man and woman survived after a train hit their silver Toyota Yaris in December.
Police were not yet able to reveal the names of the victims.