The train, travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town derailed around midnight near Kimberley. Earlier this year engineers from the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) said the Afro 400 locomotives (like the one above) from Spain – costing R600-million each – were the incorrect height for the country’s railway lines.
Initial reports suggest 100 passengers on board the Shosholoza passenger train were injured when the train derailed shortly after midnight at Modderrivier near Kimberley.
South Africa’s rail parastatal Transnet dispatched a fleet of ambulances to transport the injured to the Kimberley Hospital Complex after at least seven coaches overturned. Details remains sketchy but IOL online reports is believed that work was being conducted on the stretch of rail where the derailment happened.
At least eight ambulances from ER24, Netcare 911 and the provincial ambulance service made several trips between the crash site and Kimberley. It is said most passengers only sustained light injuries but the driver of the train was thrown from the train was seriously injured.
One passenger, Ivy Taguta, a mother who was travelling with her two-year-old son told IOL se could feel the train shaking. “It felt like it was going up and down… I saw the phone lying on the floor and it then started to slide. The coach turned over and I grabbed my son. When we got to our feet we were standing on the window. There was dust everywhere and loud noises as people started screaming. The train kept on sliding along the ground.
