Accidents.co.za | Discussion, Prevention, Investigation and Response

An elderly lady has been killed after she was knocked by a train in Kimberley.

The tragic incident took place in the industrial area near Main road, where the railway tracks run in between the buildings. The driver of the train said that he actually saw the woman on the tracks, and he tried to bring the goods train to a halt but with the heavy load it seemed almost impossible. He also said that he had tried to alert her with the air horn, but to no avail.

When ER24 paramedics arrived on the scene the woman was barely alive, and they did what they could for her whilst on the scene and loaded quickly into the awaiting ambulance for transport. Sadly, despite all attempts by the paramedics, there was no change in her already critical condition, and as they arrived at the hospital her condition further deteriorated. Staff at the hospital also attempted life saving treatment, but there was nothing more that they could do to save this woman’s life, and she was declared deceased shortly after arrival.

The woman had sustained severe, multiple critical injuries; paramedics on the scene determined that she had a head injury, multiple deep cuts, several broken bones in her lower limbs, severe chest injuries and possible internal injuries in her stomach.

It will be the duty of the local police service to investigate this accident, and to determine who the woman was so as to inform her family.

Vanessa Jackson

ER24

At least 10 people were killed when a high-speed passenger train slammed into youths crossing railway tracks at a station in Spain late on Wednesday, national radio said.

It said 15 people were also injured in the accident at the Castelldefels Playa station near Barcelona at around 23:30.

The youths were celebrating the St John’s Day festival, which takes place annually on June 23 in the north-eastern region of Catalonia and includes bonfires, fireworks, concerts and dances, the Europa Press news agency said.

It said the station was equipped with a pedestrian underpass, but the group crossed the tracks at an unauthorised spot.

The line was closed following the accident and several teams of police, medics and firefighters were at the scene.

- SAPA

Also view:

• Road Safety and Level Crossings/ Rail Crossings

Pointe-Noire – Seventy-six people were killed in Monday’s rail disaster in Yanga, Congo-Brazzaville, according to the latest toll, a member of the crisis unit in Pointe Noire said on Wednesday.

“This morning, the new toll is 76 dead. The bodies are all at the morgue in Pointe-Noire,” the official said.

The Congo-Brazzaville government on Tuesday issued a provisional toll of 48 dead and more than 400 injured in the accident, and said the search for more bodies would continue.

Raoul Essou, the deputy head of the Chemin de fer Congo-ocean (CFCO) railway company on Tuesday emphasised that there could be no exhaustive death toll until all the carriages had been cleared.

The train derailed around 60km from the southern city of Pointe-Noire.

Several witnesses said it appeared to be travelling too fast.

The head of CFCO Joseph Sauveur El Bez acknowledged that the high death toll was “because the train was overloaded. There were too many passengers”.

The CFCO chief also put down the crash to driver error. “The train was fine. The track was in good condition,” he told AFP.

The 510km CFCO line is the main link between the capital Brazzaville and Pointe Noire on the Atlantic.

Mainly following the Congo River, it was constructed between 1921 and 1934 during French colonial rule and thousands of Africans are said to have died building it.

In September 1991, a collision on the same line left 100 dead and 300 injured in the country’s worst ever rail disaster.

- AFP

Two people sustained minor injuries and 18 miraculously escaped injuries when a passenger train collided with a goods train in Kempton Park this evening at 20h30. Details to the accident will remain a subject for Metro rail to investigate.

When paramedics and firemen arrived at the accident next to Pretoria road in Kempton Park, they found some of the carriages from the goods train lying in the veld next to the railway tracks.

Emergency personnel raced to the scene expecting the worst, they were amazed that only two female passengers out of the 20 commuters were slightly injured in this accident. After treating them on scene they were transported to a private hospital in Kempton Park for further treatment.

View the Story on this accident:

• Scores Injured and 2 die in Pretoria Train Accident

Train Collision

A female driver was lucky to escape with her life after her car was hit by a goods train at Regina level crossing on the Leeudoringstad road just after 8h00 this morning.

Paramedics arrived on scene to find the twisted remains of an Opel Corsa some distance from the railway line. They were amazed that the driver escaped with no injuries although she was visibly traumatised. After paramedics examined the lady and treated her for shock; she opted to go home with family members.

Chris Botha

2 people were shaken and hundreds were spared after a train derailed near Orkney today. Details of why the goods train derailed will remain a subject for investigators. 

When Netcare 911 paramedics and emergency services arrived on scene they found that the goods train with a load of mealies had derailed . The contents and the crumpled remains of the train littered several meters down the railway lines. The locomotives left the rails, miraculously they stayed on their wheels and came to rest several meters down the line.

The driver and assistant escaped the ordeal visibly shocked but fortunately without injury. When the terrain was examined by emergency personnel they found just how fortunate the residents of an informal settlement was. If the accident happened a hundred meters down the line it would have destroyed several houses and people.

It is also reported that the Trans- Karoo train was stationary at the next siding waiting for the goods train to pass. A quote from paramedic Chris Wiggett on scene “how lucky can we be “ has never been more true.

Chris Botha
Netcare 911

A woman is in a serious but stable condition in the Prince M’Shiyeni Memorial Hospital after she was struck by a train in W Section, Umlazi, Wednesday evening.

It is thought that the woman had been walking on the platform when the fast moving carriages caused a vortex or a back draft, pulling the woman into the side of the train.

She was lucky to escape with only facial and head trauma. She was treated and stabilised by Netcare911 Paramedics at the scene before she was transported by ambulance to hospital for further care.

Jeffrey Wicks
Chris Botha

A Johannesburg man was killed when he was hit by a train near Park Station on Friday, emergency services said.

Spokesperson Percy Morokane said the man was illegally crossing the railway line when the accident occurred.

“He was cut into half, his body parts were 15 metres apart.”

This was the third fatal train accident this week. The first was on Tuesday in which a man was killed.

In the second accident a 17-year-old boy was killed while train surfing on Wednesday in Jabulani, Soweto.

- SAPA

A man was killed when a train hit him as he crossed a railway line in Denver, Hillbrow police said on Wednesday.

“It seems he did not see the train approaching and by the time the train driver blew the horn it was already too late for him,” said Inspector Freddy Ledwaba.

The man, who had not yet been identified, was declared dead at the Denver station following the accident at 17:35 on Tuesday.

- SAPA

Also view:

• Level Crossings and Road Safety