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Engineering News reports that in its Annual State of Safety Report for 2024/25, the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) recorded .9,200 safety-related occurrences, namely a 7.2% decrease from the previous year, while fatalities fell to 81, which was the lowest in five years.
However, the report showed that injuries increased to 336, which was the highest in five years. There was also a 10.9% rise in operational safety incidents, which exceeded the five-year average and were primarily driven by infrastructure deterioration and signalling failures. The top five operational incidents were collisions, derailments, fires, pantograph hook-ups, and incidents involving persons struck by trains. Most derailments occurred at low speeds in yards sidings and port terminals. Fires were linked to veld conditions and electrical faults and a number of collisions involved stray animals or vehicles on tracks. A sharp increase in pantograph hook-ups revealed heightened vulnerability of electrical infrastructure, often tied to theft and asset degradation.
Security-related incidents dominated the safety landscape, and accounted for 70% of all reported occurrences. While asset theft declined by 17%, personal safety concerns, crowd-related disruptions and vandalism remained persistent threats.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
- Read too, Railway Safety Regulator unveils alarming safety report for 2024/25, at Weekend Argus
Get other news reports at the SA LabourNews home page