Boksburg truck blast needs to be thoroughly probed

Air accident investigators often point to a chain of events as leading to a crash, rather than one single cause being to blame. The same is true of the Christmas Eve blast tragedy in Boksburg, which killed 18 people and injured scores more, many of them seriously.

Questions investigators must ask include:

• Was the driver properly trained and experienced?
• Was he driving a properly planned route?
• Was there adequate signposting about the height of the bridge under which the LPG transporter got stuck?
• Did the firefighters do the right thing by trying to fight the fire, instead of letting it burn?
• Where were the Ekurhuleni Metro cops? Why did they not get to the emergency promptly and set up a cordon to keep onlookers a safe distance away?

This massive medical emergency has strained our government health services to the point where they are enlisting help from private facilities, while medical experts are saying our lack of enough trained medical staff – especially those dealing with burn injuries – could lead to more deaths.

Also Read: Gift of the Givers responds to Boksburg gas tanker explosion

Sadly, it was the South African habit of “rubber-necking” and wanting to witness any drama first-hand and close-up, which saw so many people well within the blast danger zone.

Likewise, it was that ghoulish tendency to want to share awful imagery which saw some ghastly and insensitive videos being posted online, including by media organisations (ourselves included, in an error which we apologise for), some which, thankfully, took them down quickly.

Also Read: Poor signage may have contributed to Boksburg explosion incident

The families of the victims – both dead and fighting for their lives – need all the support they can get and it is heartening to see that, in times of suffering, South Africans can still reach out to help.

We offer our deepest sympathies to all those affected and urge the authorities to carry out a thorough investigation, because this must not be allowed to happen again.