Metrorail train driver Mervyne Matthee received both psychiatric and psycho-therapy, as well as medication for complications in his bereavement over the death of his wife, the Paarl Regional Court heard on Monday.
Matthee’s trial on 10 charges of culpable homicide resumed before magistrate Anna-Marie Immelman, with forensic scientist David Klatzow as her assessor.
The hearing is a sequel to a train smash three years ago near the Muldersvlei railway station in the Boland, in which a Metrorail commuter train driven by Matthee collided with the rear of a stationary goods train.
The smash claimed the lives of 10 passengers.
At Monday’s hearing, psychiatrist Gert van Niekerk told the court a normal bereavement lasted about one year, but Matthee’s had been prolonged due to complications, for which he had needed treatment.
He said Matthee had suffered three serious bouts of fainting — the first when doctors informed him and his wife that she had terminal cancer.
The second happened after his wife’s death, when Matthee had accompanied friends to a dance.
During the dance, Matthee had danced with a woman friend, but this had made him think of his wife and this had severely stressed him and had caused him to faint.
The third episode had been as he drove the train that smashed into the goods train.
Van Niekerk said Matthee had been referred to him for medication for depression and sleeping difficulties.
He said Matthee’s emotional state from his wife’s death included hot flushes and fainting bouts — caused by low blood pressure — each time he thought about his wife.
Questioned by defence lawyers John van der Berg and Hannes de Beer, he said Matthee, while driving the train, had thought about two other train drivers who earlier had died in rail collisions.
Van Niekerk said Matthee’s thoughts about his deceased colleagues had made him think again about his wife.
This, in turn, had caused unavoidable hot flushes, and Matthee fainted in the cabin of the train.
Klatzow informed Van Niekerk that Matthee, despite his prolonged bereavement, had been told by a superior to ”snap out of it”.
Klatzow asked if it was possible in such circumstances to ”simply snap out of it”.
Van Niekerk replied: ”No, a prolonged bereavement with complications, as suffered by Matthee, is not something one can just snap out of. Dealing with emotions is a long process.”
Van Niekerk said Matthee could not have known at the time of the smash that he was emotionally unfit to be driving a train.
The hearing continues on Tuesday. — Sapa