A railway line north of Pretoria was reopened on Monday afternoon following the deaths of three people when a train hit a bakkie near Ga-Rankuwa, said a railway official.
The train driver and guard were sent for trauma counselling after what a witness told rail officials and paramedics appeared to have been a suicide bid by the bakkie driver.
”The line has been certified safe to use at 4.35pm, so it’s open,” said a spokesperson for Metrorail, Thokozani Zitha.
She said peak-hour rail traffic was expected to continue as normal.
The accident north of Pretoria took place at about noon, when the train hit the bakkie at a level crossing. All the bakkie’s occupants — two adults and an infant — died. Nobody on the train was injured, said Zitha.
Both Zitha and paramedics said a witness described how the bakkie driver drove up to the level crossing, stopped and waited for the train. He then drove on to the tracks in the path of the train and stopped.
Zitha said the train driver hooted, as is standard at crossings, but the bakkie did not move. She said the witness believed it could have been suicide by the bakkie driver. ”I can’t confirm that, but that’s what the witness said.”
ER24 spokesperson Riana Beech said paramedics found that the baby, about a year old, had been flung from the bakkie on to concrete about 300m away from the collision. The bakkie with the two adults trapped in it was dragged about 700m, coming to rest trapped under the train. All were certified dead on the scene.
There was no way the bakkie driver could not have seen the train, the witness told ER24.
”As soon as the train was within a few metres, the driver crossed the railway line. The train could not avoid speeding into the vehicle,” said Beech
The victims were assumed to be from the same family.
Metrorail has set up an inquiry into the incident. — Sapa