Crash: Baby found under seat
2005-10-27 21:04
Johannesburg - Babies were flung under seats and passengers jolted out of their sleep during a head-on collision between the Shosholoza Meyl and the Blue Train on Wednesday night.
"I woke up after being hurled forward against the seats. Suitcases were everywhere, people were screaming while others grabbed their luggage and went outside," Phumeza Stishi said.
"I eventually found the baby under the seat."
Mother and 11-month-old baby were travelling on the Shosholoza Meyl to Johannesburg when the accident happened shortly after 23:00 at the Deelfontein railway station between De Aar and Victoria West.
Stishi wore a neck brace. Tiny Athenkosi slept peacefully on her back, having escaped injury.
Nobody was killed. Transnet spokesperson John Dludlu said of the 10 people hospitalised in De Aar, sixx were treated and discharged.
He did not know the condition of the remaining four.
Dludlu said there were 44 people on the hotel-on-wheels Blue Train and about 300 on the Trans Karoo.
Ahead of schedule
The Blue Train, which was waiting for the Shosholoza Meyl to pass it, was stationary in a loop track when the accident happened.
The Blue Train was ahead of schedule on its way from Pretoria to Cape Town and was whiling away time, said Spoornet spokesperson Molatwane Likhethe.
The Trans Karoo express - coming from Cape Town - was apparently diverted onto the same track and the two met head-on.
The force of the collision pushed the Blue Train's engine underneath its first coach.
Spoornet chief executive officer Siyabonga Gama told Sapa at the scene that "problems" with an electronic signalling system could have caused the collision.
"They are still looking for the black box that was on the Shosholoza to download information for a better understanding of what caused the accident," he said.
Emergency brakes
Gama, who flew to the accident scene at 03:00 on Thursday with several managers from the rail operator, said the accident could have been worse if the Shosholoza Meyl's driver had not applied emergency brakes.
"The drivers of the two trains had been hospitalised at De Aar. One of them is in a critical but stable condition," he said.
"Various employees on the Blue Train were also slightly injured. One of them is still in hospital with broken ribs.
Gama said Spoornet had arranged buses to take passengers to their destinations, with the last four buses leaving the area at about 10:00.
Forty-four tourists, mostly foreign nationals, were aboard the Blue Train.
Spoornet, a division of Transnet, said 31 of them came from Japan, eight from the United Kingdom, two from South Africa, two from Holland and one from Taiwan.
"Of all these people, two Japanese suffered minor injuries."
Transnet spokesperson John Dludlu said the government, a shareholder of Transnet, had informed the foreign governments of the incident, including sharing with them the names the injured.
Cause
"We have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident.
"To facilitate the investigation, we have closed that line.
"Until this investigation is completed, we think it would be unwise to speculate on the cause," Dludlu said.
The Railway Safety Regulator said it would launch an independent probe into the accident, while the United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) demanded to be part of the official investigation.
"This accident was one of the most serious of its kind in South African rail history, and is the first in which the Blue Train collided head-on with another train," Utatu said.
The Democratic Alliance said the portfolio committee on transport should also be involved in the investigation.
The Blue Train is South Africa's premier luxury train and the Shosholoza Meyl is the flagship train between the Cape and Gauteng.
The department of public enterprises said it regretted the collision and that a full investigation into the cause was underway.
- SAPA