A signalling failure caused the accident between the Blue Train and the Trans Karoo near Beaufort West in October last year, according to a report released on Wednesday.
”It was established that the wrong-side signalling failure was as a result of a short circuit caused by a solder splatter in the relay unit,” said Mosenngwa Mofi, chief executive of the Railway Safety Regulator.
An independent board for enquiry set up by the regulator released its report after an extensive investigation and hearings.
A solder splatter is a drop of solder — an easily melted mixture of lead and tin used for joining metal surfaces — accidentally dropped on to, and thus flattened against, a solid surface.
It was determined that despite some visual inspection and electrical tests, the solder splatter remained undetected and therefore directly caused the malfunction of the relay unit, which eventually lead to a wrong side signalling failure that caused the collision between the trains.
The accident occurred on October 26 when the two Spoornet trains collided at Deelfontein.
The Blue Train was travelling from Pretoria en route to Cape Town as the Trans Karoo was en route from Cape Town to Pretoria.
Two Japanese passengers on the Blue Train sustained head and neck injuries and nine crew members were slightly injured, with the driver sustaining serious injuries to his pelvis.
On the Trans Karoo, nine passengers sustained minor injuries. Two crew members were slightly injured.
According to the report, evidence showed that the Blue Train had arrived first at Deelfontein and was directed to loop one to allow the Trans Karoo, which was 25 minutes late, to pass through on the main line.
When the Trans Karoo approached Deelfontein, the signals had opened for it to proceed on the main line. However, when the Trans Karoo reached the main line points, the points had been arranged in such a way that they routed it into loop one, where the Blue Train had been stationary.
Despite attempts by the Trans Karoo driver to apply emergency \brakes, it crashed into the Blue Train.
”The solder splatter was a ‘trap’, waiting for the occasion when the signal was set up in this particular way, to cause a wrong side failure,” read the report.
The board of enquiry recommended that a comprehensive safety-management system audit be initiated by the Railway Safety Regulator to determine and rectify any deficiencies.
It also recommended that Spoornet review existing quality assurance measures to ascertain their reliability and extend the same to all contractors within the safety value chain. — Sapa