Engineering News reports that train collisions accounted for the highest number of safety incidents in the rail sector during 2017/18, the Railway Safety Regulator’s (RSR’s) annual safety report showed.
Other prominent incidents included fires, platform train interchange incidents, people being struck by trains and derailments. The RSR’s report was an assessment of the safety performance of railway operators for the reporting period from April 2017 to March 2018 and identified the main areas of concern. On Friday, RSR representative Rirhandzu Mashava advised that train collisions increased by 1.6%, from 625 to 635 incidents, while collisions between rolling stock were responsible for 89% of injuries and fatalities. Train derailments went up by 17% in the reporting period, with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal accounting for the majority of the incidents. An analysis revealed that the main causes of these derailments were theft and vandalism, poor maintenance of rolling stock and points which had not been set correctly. Level crossing incidents in the reporting period were mainly as a result of road users’ behaviour. Referring to safety and security related incidents, Mashava said incidents in the security space increased significantly by 21.3%, from 6,378 to 7,737 in the financial year. Theft of assets and vandalism to property continued to plague the railway environment, with the torching of trains and vandalism of rail infrastructure greatly hindering the industry’s efforts to have a reliable, safe and secure rail transport system
- Read this report in full at Engineering News
- Read too, Lives of train commuters on the line, at SowetanLive
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