eNCA reports that the United National Transport Union (UNTU) has demanded that the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) should be charged with 200 counts of attempted murder.
This call came after a Metrorail train rear-ended a stationary locomotive in Germiston on Tuesday, injuring over 200 commuters. According to the union, the RSR and Prasa “acted reckless in allowing the trains to once again be manually operated when signal problems occurred knowing that the poor management and unsafe execution of the manual authorisation process resulted in a crash between two Metrorail trains at the Elandsfontein Station on 1 June 2017 during which a commuter was killed.” UNTU has obtained a legal opinion from an attorney specialising in criminal law confirming that there was indeed a prima facie case against the RSR and Prasa in respect of the crash on 9 January 2018. UNTU general secretary Steve Harris claimed that the RSR should have suspended the railway services in Gauteng unless the signals were working. “How can we sit back and blatantly allow innocent train crew members and commuters to put their lives at risk knowing that death is a likelihood?” he asked.
- A short report is at eNCA
- Read UNTU’s press statement at SA Labour News
- See too, Metrorail ordered by RSR to halt manual authorisation of trains, at EWN
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page