The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) and Transport Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande are to blame and must account for the tragic train accident in Mountain View, Pretoria, that claimed the lives of four passengers and injured more than 300 more.
 
Steve Harris, General Secretary of the United National Transport Union (UNTU), says this collision between trains 0810 and 1818 would have been prevented if Prasa ensured that its management implemented the terms of the court order that Judge Cassim Sadiwalle granted against them in October last year.
 
In terms of the Court Order, Prasa had to ensure that a supervisor oversees each and every manual authorisation of a train control officer to eliminate human errors form occurring, as was the case with all the train collisions in Gauteng over the last three years.
 
“Had there been two pairs of eyes overseeing the manual authorisation instead of one, this collision would in all likelihood never have happened,” says Harris.
 
The implementation of this order was the reason why the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) re-issued Prasa with a safety permit to continue operating on the railway lines.
 
The trains from Mabopane to the Daspoort Station have been working on manual authorisation for more than a year as none of the signals on the route are working.
 
Harris says the Union has repeatedly condemned the long usage of manual authorisations as it increases the risk for fatal accidents.
 
“We have been asking for a meeting with Minister Nzimande for over 11 months now without success. He is kept in the dark about the true state of affairs on ground level while our members and commuters are dying,” says Harris.
 
UNTU would like to extend our sincerest condolences to the loved ones of the four commuters who died in the crash and wishes the injured passengers a speedy recovery. The Union its very grateful that none of its four traincrew members, were seriously injured although they are very traumatised.
 
Jaco du Plessis, an independent attorney, says the RSR now has an obligation to return to the Gauteng North High Court and point out to Judge Sadiwalle that PRASA is in contempt of its court order by ignoring the terms of it.
 
Issued on behalf of UNTU