A commuter train driver was trapped for four hours after his train ploughed into the back of a freight train near the Muldersvlei station in the Boland three years ago, the Paarl Regional Court heard on Tuesday.
Mervyne Matthee (59) is on trial on 10 counts of culpable homicide before magistrate Anna-Marie Immelman and assessor David Klatzow, a forensic scientist appointed to assist the court with technicalities.
Metrorail investigator Hennie Pretorius presented to the court his 10-page report, and will on Wednesday be cross-examined by the defence team, John van der Berg and Hannes de Beer.
Prosecutor Enslin Orange alleges that Matthee negligently failed to stop at three red-light signals, which caused the smash about 5pm on January 7 2003.
Pretorius told the court Matthee had had 27 years’ experience as a train driver at the time of the collision, and had been on duty for 10 hours and 50 minutes.
On arrival at the scene, about 2km from the Muldersvlei station, he found Matthee’s driver’s cab badly damaged and stuck to the rear end of the goods train. Matthee was still trapped in the cab, and commuter coaches were derailed and in the veld alongside the rail.
Pretorius added: ”I asked Matthee if he was okay, and he said yes — not quite the correct question to ask in the circumstances, but he said he’s okay, so I went on with the investigation.”
He said Matthee was bleeding from bumping his head against the windscreen, which was made of strong safety glass. Had the windscreen been made of ordinary glass, Matthee would have been far more seriously injured, he said.
Pretorius said he set up a joint operational centre, and the City of Cape Town’s disaster management offered the use of its suitably equipped vehicles. He said he did a thorough investigation to establish the possible point of impact, after all the commuters had been removed from the scene.
At about 7pm, Johan Minnie, of the city’s disaster management, informed him 10 commuters had died in the smash, while 40 had been seriously injured, four less severely injured and five injured but able to move without help. These figures excluded Matthee, who was still trapped.
A 24-hour emergency information line was set up by 8pm, for the benefit of the families of the dead and injured. At the same time, strict instructions were given that only the chief executive of Metrorail, Honey Mateya, could provide information to the media.
Pretorius said Matthee was freed from the wreckage just after 9pm, and taken by ambulance to hospital in Stellenbosch, from where he was later transferred to hospital in Paarl.
At 1.30am the next day, Pretorius was informed that the number of injured had risen from 49 to 100.
The hearing continues on Wednesday. — Sapa