/ 8 November 2000

4 DEAD, 109 HURT IN REEF TRAIN SMASH

FOUR people have been confirmed dead and 109 injured after a head-on collision between two Metrorail passenger trains in Wadeville outside Johannesburg during peak hour traffic. The dead include two female passengers and two drivers, one of whom was still trapped inside the cab of his train the day after the smash. One of the trains was travelling to Kathlehong while the other was en route to Elsburg when the accident occurred on a new stretch of line on Tuesday afternoon. The cause of the crash is not known, but two controlling officers who manually authorised the trains to travel on the stretch of rail have been suspended.