Johannesburg - A security guard was killed when two trains collided in Joburg on Tuesday morning, the CEO for Prasa Rail, Mosenngwa Mofi, has confirmed.
In addtion to the guard who was killed, up to 240 people were injured when a Metro Plus train and a Business Express train collided at the Denver train station at about 7am.
The deceased was a security guard in her 30s.
The guard, whose job was to signal the trains, was behind the Metro Plus train when she was hit by the Business Express Metrorail, Mofi said.
At least two of the cars from the Metro Plus train were derailed. One landed on the platform, its entire front crushed, while the other went into a building crushing some of the passengers.
ER24 spokesman Russel Meiring said paramedics had freed a woman trapped between the train and a wall and airlifted her to a nearby hospital.
“All the patients are being moved over to a nearby platform where they’re being treated and then transported to nearby hospitals,” Meiring said on Tuesday morning.
He described the carnage. “ER24 paramedics, along with various services, arrived on the scene and found the wrecked trains blocking the tracks completely. Bent metal and parts of the train had been spread across the scene.”
Gauteng Metrorail spokeswoman Lillian Mofokeng said it was unclear what the cause of the accident was, but that it would be investigated.
Passenger Rail Agency of SA spokesman Lesedi Mapheto said he could not confirm allegations that faulty signals caused the accident.
Dipuo Peters’s spokesman Tiyani Rikhotso tweeted: “Transport Minister @DipuoPeters wishes a speedy recovery to those injured in the Denver train crash.”
The Star