News24 reports that the Western Cape High Court slammed the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) for its "disquieting lack of care" for the safety of its commuters when finding the company 100% liable for injuries sustained by a schoolboy who fell out of a moving train after being hit on the head with a stone.
In his judgment, Acting Judge Masudah Pangarker described a dystopian scene of commuters packed tightly in a train with missing window panes and doors that could not close because the coach was so full. After boarding the train at Mutual station on 1 March 2019, the schoolboy was squashed inside the train in front of the door, unable to reach the handholds. People on the side of the tracks were throwing stones at the coaches as the train made its way from Heideveld to Nyanga, and the boy was hit on the head by a stone. He fell out of the open door. His school friend got off at the next station and found the boy unconscious and with blood on his head next to the tracks. Because of his injuries, the victim missed the rest of the school year. Now a 21-year-old man, the injured passenger, applied for R3.5m in damages because Prasa had a duty to make sure the doors were closed before pulling off. But, Prasa argued that he should have known that standing next to an open door was dangerous. Pangarker ruled that Prasa had not only ignored a previous Constitutional Court judgment ordering it to keep its commuters safe by making sure its windows were intact and its doors were closed, but that it should not have allowed the train to move off with the doors open in the first place. The judge had stern words for Prasa. He found Prasa 100% liable for the claimant’s injury and ordered punitive costs because of the way Prasa handled the case.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jenni Evans at News24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page