Pretoria - Once again an out-of-control truck has crashed through the barrier of the Gautrain in Sunnyside. Once again, it is fortunate no train was involved and no passengers were hurt.
The driver of the truck, which was travelling down Loveday Street and hurtled across Justice Mahomed, hit the concrete barrier and landed on the train track reserve below on Wednesday afternoon. He survived but his passenger died on the scene.
Last November, in a similar incident, a cement truck came down from the hill near Jacaranda Hospital and crashed on the track. The driver was critically injured. In both cases, the busy afternoon and evening service between Hatfield and Pretoria Station was suspended and buses used to transport passengers.
Elijah Nkosi, the shocked driver of the rubble-removal truck, who said he used his bare hands to put out a fire which started in the truck, said people who were nearby had refused to help him when he tried to save his passenger, saying they needed permission to enter the rail area.
“I spent an hour shouting, trying to ask for help. There were emergency people and Gautrain workers but they said they needed permission to get to where the truck had landed,” a shocked Nkosi told the Pretoria News.
His passenger, Vusi Mkhwanazi, from Delmas, died in front of him, he said. “I saw blood while we were trapped in the truck, but he was still alive.”
Nkosi, who hails from Tweefontein, also in Mpumalanga, said his truck was damaged beyond repair. It was eventually pulled out of the tracks just before 7pm.
Nkosi had just collected a load of rubble from a property in Sunnyside. As he drove down the street he lost control of the truck and rolled. He said he slammed the brakes, but the truck did not stop. It crashed through the barrier and landed on the tracks.
Nkosi’s friend, Lucas Mhlanga, said an agitated motorist called him at exactly 2.56pm to report the incident. The caller told him he asked workers who were around for help, but they said they needed permission to access the section where the truck had landed. The passenger was still alive, Mhlanga confirmed.
Tshwane Emergency Services spokesman Johan Pieterse said they managed to extricate Nkosi using the jaws of life, but unfortunately the passenger had died.
A Gautrain spokeswoman Kesagee Nayager couldn’t say how long services would be disrupted, but said a bus shuttle would operate between Hatfield and Pretoria stations. - Additional reporting by Tankiso Makhetha
Pretoria News