Injured passengers from new Metrorail train accident discharged
The new transport minister has taken personal interest in the accident.
After a Transnet freight rail tamping machine collided with a new Metrorail train on Saturday afternoon at around 6pm, the 40 injured passengers have been discharged.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula tweeted that the driver remained in hospital but his condition was not serious.
Update on the Mamelodi Train Collision:
The 40 injured passengers have all been treated at our hospitals & have been discharged. The driver of the Transnet Machine remains in hospital but not critical. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/2ca9W0e7My
— ANC SG & RSA MINISTER| Cde Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) June 2, 2019
He added that, as the minister, “aside from making sure that such an accident doesn’t occur again, I’ll be interested to get an appraisal on the robustness of our new fleet design as regards to passenger safety”.
The collision happened when the tamping machine, while busy with maintenance, collided with the new Metrorail train at Eerste Fabrieke Station.
Metrorail Gauteng said in a statement: “The tamping machine rolled from Greenview back to Eerste Fabrieke station where the Metrorail train was stationary and carrying commuters onboard.
“As a result of the collision, the train service between Pienaarspoort and Pretoria has been affected.”
The line was closed to allow both Metrorail and Transnet technical teams to attend to the accident.
Emergency services attended to the injured commuters, which had 43 minor and 14 serious injuries. The injured commuters received urgent medical treatment at the Steve Biko and Tshwane district hospitals.
“The driver of the stationary train requested the 300 commuters on board to leave the train upon noticing the oncoming temping machine. The commuters refused to leave the train and instead pulled the passenger emergency alarm levers, which stops the train from moving,” said Metrorail.
Investigations were under way to probe the collision. Commuters were advised to expect train delays on the corridor while Metrorail continued to address the problem.
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