South African train collision kills three, injures 600
Johannesburg, Jan 8: Two passenger trains collided head on during the morning rush hour in South Africa's capital city Pretoria Tuesday, killing three people and injuring hundreds, emergency services said.
Two critically injured people were airlifted from the scene of the crash in Mountain View, northern Pretoria, spokesman Charles Mabaso told AFP.
Another 641 people were hurt, with 11 sustaining critical injuries and 62 suffering "moderate" injuries.
"The current fatalities stand at three, but it still might rise," said Mabaso.
When paramedics arrived on the scene, they found carriages from both trains tilting half off the track.
"Numerous passengers were found either in the trains or found walking around on the scene," Russel Meiring, a spokesman for the ER24 emergency services, said in a statement
Rail accidents are common in South Africa. In 2016-17, 495 people were killed on the country's railways, according to the Railway Safety Regulator.
Transport Minister Blade Nzimande said the accident was caused by signals failure which he blamed on cable theft.
"I'm truly saddened about this continuing deaths of commuters at Metrorail," said the minister after visiting the scene of the crash.
"I'm personally outraged ...we can't every time be having the repeat of the same problem. As government, we have to bring this to end. We need more stringent measures to be able to deal with this situation. We need to find a way of dealing with rail safety," he said, demanding explanation from the country's rail agency.
The theft of railway cables is a continuing problem in the country. They are often melted into ingots before being smuggled to Asia.
Khanyisile Kweyama, the chairwoman of the board of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), admitted that the security of rail signalling cables "hasn't been" great.
A year ago, in one of the country's worst rail disasters, a passenger train smashed into a lorry at a level crossing near Kroonstad in the central Free State province, killing 19 people and wounding 254.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
