Fatal Head On Collision at the Matlabas crossing

[John Ashworth]

Fatal Head On Collision

Transnet Freight Rail announced this week - a head on collision between two of its trains occurred at the Matlabas crossing which is located between Thabazimbi and Lephalale in Limpopo Province.

At approximately 20:45 on the 15th of October 2019 a train with 100 loaded coal wagons collided in the loop with a stationary train carrying 89 empty wagons.

The Train Driver and Assistant Train Driver of the empty train were fatally injured and the Driver and Assistant from the loaded train were severely injured and taken to a nearby hospital. The extent of damage to infrastructure is still to be determined but what is known at this stage is that the empty train set had 2 burnt out locomotives and one derailed on its side...