Durban | Wednesday
THE death toll in Tuesday’s train crash between a Metrorail passenger train and a goods train north of Durban has risen to 22.
Superintendent Vish Naidoo confirmed on Wednesday that four more people had died overnight.
At least four of the dead were children.
Most of the 117 people injured in the accident were children who were on their home from the Gledhow and Stanger schools.
Rescue workers worked to free dozens of people trapped inside mangled passenger coaches on the twin-track line through a valley at rural Charlotte’s Dale, about 60 kilometres north of the port city of Durban.
Passengers at the front of the train had been ”minced”, a shaken police officer said. Debris and belongings were strewn around the crash site.
”It is very bad. We have 100 seriously injured people,” Police Captain Len John said soon after the accident, estimating that about 50 people were trapped in the derailed front coaches of the train.
Metrorail official Sifiso Lukhele, the acting regional manager in the Durban area, said the passenger train had run into the back of the stationary goods train as it made its way from Stanger to Durban, but the cause of the accident was not known.
”All I heard was a loud bang and the screams of the passengers,” 15-year-old Bruce Bodozu, who was hurt in both legs, said. The youth, accompanied by his sister, had been going home from school in Stanger to Groutville near the crash site.
”This was an accident,” the pair’s father Sibonelo said.
”It could happen at any time. I’m not angry at Metrorail. But if the cause was negligence, the company should take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Many of the passengers were feared to be schoolchildren.
The driver and two other Metrorail staff from the passenger train were taken to hospital, rescue workers said as police, paramedics and soldiers joined forces under overcast skies in a coordinated operation.
”We have not been able to talk to the driver,” John said.
The injured were laid out either side of the tracks for treatment, while rescue teams using a helicopter and ambulances ferried casualties to hospitals in Stanger and the Durban suburb of Umhlanga.
Local people helped rescue teams carry their heavy equipment down the valley.
”There will be a thorough investigation because it’s the public’s right to know what happened, especially so soon after the KwaMashu train crash,” Lukhele said, referring to an accident near Durban on December 27, when the driver died and 51 passengers were injured when two commuter trains collided.
”If anyone is responsible, the necessary measures will be taken,” he vowed, offering his condolences to bereaved families and those of the injured.
”Metrorail will look into compensation,” he added.
The rail company had already compensated 17 people in connection with the KwaMashu accident and others were in line, he said.
Lukhele said Metrorail would hold a press conference on Wednesday at 9am.
The United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utata) said it was shocked by the accident.
Utata general secretary Christo Vos urged President Thabo Mbeki to intervene in ”the struggle” to secure better conditions for rail workers.
Vos said many factors played a role in accidents, but insufficient rest between shifts for train drivers, outdated equipment and a lack of safety measures were major problems.
”If the situation continues as it is at the moment, we will have no other option than to bring all the trains to a standstill. We’d rather inconvenience commuters than kill more of them.” – AFP, Sapa