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MORE THAN 300 people have been injured in a commuter train collision in South Africa, an emergency services spokeswoman said this evening.
Nana Radebe, spokeswoman for Johannesburg Emergency Services, said 326 people were rushed to nearby hospitals with minor to serious injuries. No fatalities have been reported.
“For now we have removed people with minor to serious injuries, but none critical,” she said, adding that firefighters were still searching for commuters who may be trapped inside the train cars.
Radebe earlier said those injured numbered more than 400.
The trains were on the same track, Radebe told The Associated Press, and it appeared that a travelling train collided with a stationary train.
The accident happened at rush hour between two stations, with both trains travelling from the Johannesburg city center to the township of Soweto, said Lillian Mofokeng, the Metrorail spokeswoman for the Gauteng province.
The cause of the accident was unknown and authorities were still gathering information about the collision, Mofokeng said.
“Our priority right now is just to attend to the injured and then arrange alternative transport,” she said. About 100 passengers who were not injured would be bused home, said Mofokeng.
“We don’t have the exact number but it’s more than 150 people injured,” Russel Meiring, spokesman for the ER24 medical service that was treating people at the accident site, told AFP.
About 100 people have been removed from the scene to hospital. We believe there is no one trapped inside anymore.
A commuter told the Eyewitness News website that one train derailed and hit the other.
Rail authorities at the scene told AFP that the cause of the crash had not yet been identified and that investigations would continue overnight and in the morning.
Emergency workers carried badly injured people to dozens of waiting ambulances as shocked passengers sat on the ground and received treatment for minor injuries.
Some passengers were given medical care inside the wrecked carriages before being carefully lifted down a steep embankment on stretchers.
The accident happened at the height of the evening rush hour when the trains were packed with people heading from Johannesburg city centre to residential areas.
Buses were laid on to take uninjured passengers home, while train services were disrupted across the south of the city.
The last major train crash in South Africa was in April when a guard was killed and 240 people injured in a similar accident in Johannesburg as two crowded commuter trains collided.
With AP
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Kathleen, you’ll be lucky if your family vote for you in the next election although you’ll probably run to the hills with your big fat pension.
I was talking to an uncle of a current Government T.D. and he said he wouldn’t make the mistake of voting for him again! ……… Makes you wonder about the accuracy of polls!
Is there any group in society apart from themselves they haven’t attacked?
No.
Bankers. They’ve been very kind to them so far.
Kathleen, I doubt you even believe it yourself. Nothing is ringfenced. There is no money there to ring fence. It’s been spent, its gone. We gave it to Sean Fitzpatrick to buy magic beans.
70 million to host the Presidency of Europe, It was 35 in Denmark!
More cuts from the party that brought you the property tax
The politics and those practicing it in this country ‘strikes fear into me’
It’s a deplorable act – one of the many, many, many of the like carried out on societies most vulnerable by successive governments. Shame is obviously a bi-word these days.
Another nail in the coffin for this government it will be very interesting to see how many will take their big fat pensions and retire and end up in the same boat as Bertie Aherne and the rest of his friends from the pervious government
@Kenneth, bertie and his gang of con artist did really well for themselves, they retired on huge made-for-life pensions and landed on there feet with careers. They never even answered or paid for destroying this country and its people, and don’t forget… look what party is leading in the polls for the next election!
Maybe now the apparently gormless general population of Ireland, gormless because they appear reluctant to stand up for themselves, will stand up for THE most vulnerable section of Irish society and in the process restore some credibility to themselves. And about frugging time……. Deep within the Irish psyche we are a stoic and compassionate people……… Time now folks for the compassion to find voice. Besides, the stoicism exhibited in recent years has taken a greater toll than the U-know whoze could dare believe. If this is not the time to say stop then give it up……. you have new masters.
An interesting example of the law of unintended consequences – a complaint is made to the Ombudsman that the Mobility Allowance Scheme is illegal because it excludes people over 66 years of age.
Rather than extend the scheme to everyone which the government can not afford, it is forced to completely abolish the scheme so it is no longer in breach of the Equal Status Act.
thats because you Joe are most likely dipping into the same pot as your buddys no wonder they have no money.
Utterly sickens me to hear FF to speak like they are the defenders of the down trodden when any simpleton can see they’d do the exactly same thing if, God forbid, they ever get back into power. You got us into this s*it pit FF…you have demnstrated you are utterly incapable of getting us out of it. Just like the current crop…
Think you will find that like every other grant in this country… a huge cohort of those getting it should not be… same goes for carers etc… I commend the HSE for reviewing every case and giving the money to those that deserve it. I wish people were half as critical of the huge volume of people out there playing the system…
Don’t feed the troll….people
DO NOT FEED THE TROLL!
:D
Of course Declan you have proof and only to happy to provide links to same?Yes?
Well Declan any links or are you just spinning the party line?
You’re a pr*ck …
Thats at Declan Cotter by the way…
You feeding out of the same pot as yourb buddy Joe greedy fickers.
Nice Tony… big man behind a screen… moron…!!!
And I am no troll… just dont beat the usual populist drum that is played on here…
No party line… I commend the Goverment for trying to undo the mess we find ourselves in… and yes it is of our own doing… I saw no protests on the street when social welfare was increased year after year… i saw no protests when income tax was reduced, college fee’s removed etc. etc etc… I could go on and on…
BTW Jenny… There is a world outside of links!!!! You need to get out more
If your gonna make a comment like you did it would be nice if you backed it up,did FG HQ not provide you with the info?
Call it real life Jenny… I see it day in, day out… Saw a couple on SF take a trip to Disney Land last year… Right through college i saw people getting grants having there own cars!!! This couple has a brutal record of holding individuals accountable.. If you deserve the benefits then the state should provide…but the state has an obligation to verify..
Playing the system like google to tune of circa €6 billion over 5 yrs. quite a tune while the disabled stranded at home.
So they can’t afford 10.1 Million for the disabled of the country for mobility allowance, but yet for 266 people they can manage to have travel expenses of 7.2 Million…when are people gonna fight back!
Could we not just take it out of the foreign aid budget?
You are inviting more taxation Kelleher. Is that your policy? If the money is not there it is not there. Are you seriously saying we need more taxation? If we cannot afford these allowances how are you proposi mg the money be made available. Tell the nation you want more taxation and stop playing party politics with an important issue.
ANGLO IRISH BANK HAD PRIVATE CONTRACTS WITH GERMAN AND FRENCH BANKS…..not a word was mentioned in those contracts about the Irish citizen being responsible for any liability for those loans in anyway shape or form….60 BILLION has been pushed on us illegally through agents in our government working for the Troika and the ECB , so are we going to take this bull** or are we going to say NO ?
there was a very nicely cut coat and red shoes walking into the dail today, whilst i sat outside in my wheelchair protesting, yep.
i didnt feel nice in my scruff nor the bucket the hse gave me for a wheelchair, a reconstituted sick clapped out museum piece it is. i think revolt is the only way. surely there was more than twin and myself who heard this news last night? where were you today then? all working? too sick? we need far more people out there being expressive not sitting at a laptop being passively aggressive, this way is the easy way. i am in utter fear of what will happen next and when kathleen expresses herself as ‘agonizing’ over this….no Kathleen Lynch, you dont agonize over disability cuts, we agonize as we are the disabled being cut. if you have to make a decision over heating for the house, versus ‘can i afford this to help keep my eyesight? YES, thats agonizing, and thats what i do all the time. a disability pension only goes so far Minister for Health with special responsibility for disability and mental health. i am mental with this agonizing and thats a bloody fact.
The Irish bull. Where do you get the money? I take it for your comment that you are willing to pay additional tax , but , do you really think the people can afford to pay more tax? The cause is mighty but people are stretched. The idea that the State can just magic up the money is outdated. How much cash are you personally prepared to cough up to replace these grants, each week?
How about makin corporations cough up seeing as they wont even pay the 12.5% tax they are supposed to pay and how about cutting the salaries of the high end earners and special allowances for the political elite and how about nationalising our gas and oil ???…..shall i continue ??
Tua,
Thats the corporations that employ hundreds of thousands up and down the country… Give me a break….I work for these companies and know first hand that our corporation tax is a massive insentive.. I hear this kind of babble from Boyd Barrett all the time… rediculous.
Rory is bang on with his comment.
They are very kind to employ a man who can’t even spell incentive. Is this a quid pro quo for them paying around 4% ?
Rory , can you pay my bils ? I have a private contract with the ESB and you have to pay my bill….just like ANGLO they had private contracts with European banks and we are paying those bills, so will you pay my bills which you have no liability for ?
An actual tax take of 0.14% is a joke. As for them paying wages etc that a red herring. Our 12.5% rate is lowest in Europe by far. So implementing the full rate would not send these companies elsewhere. Ur stance is “half a loaf” politics. Except we ain’t getting half a loaf or even the crumbs of the corporate tables.
Kellehers scared? The thought of Fianna Fáil getting back into power scares me shitless!
This government is devoid of any humanity. They are a disgrace to this country. Enda is the most sniveling , two-faced p***k I have ever come across!!
I thought this government promised to look after the most vunerable in this country how come they didn’t tell the public what they really had planned once they had there massive wages and pensions sorted
Kathleen should be ashamed, especially considering the fact had she not made a full recovery, it could so easily be her on the receiving end of these cutbacks now: http://www.medicalindependent.ie/6797/ready_for_the_challenge
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