During the morning peak on 25 August, a minibus-taxi carrying 14 scholars overtook a queue of vehicles waiting at the Buttskop Road crossing 1km south of Blackheath station (29km east of Cape Town), zig-zagged through the closed half-barriers and was hit by Metrorail train 2309, the 06:35 from Bellville to Eerste River. The driver of the minibus survived, though badly hurt, but nine children died and five sustained serious injury, of whom one was rated “critical”.
Predictable public outrage followed, accompanied by a host of suggestions for preventing similar incidents in the future. Unfortunately, a bridge to replace the crossing would cost in the region of R40 million but so would bridges to do away with many other crossings. The total bill would run into billions. And the question has to be asked: if a taxi driver can approach a crossing on the wrong side of the road and drive round lowered gates and into a train, what is to stop another taxi driver from going up a bridge ramp on the wrong side of the road and colliding head-on with something coming the other way?
Many people condemned the standard practice of using half barriers. The question here is – if a taxi carrying 14 children disregards the warning lights and gets past the first full-width barrier as it lowers, how many children are likely to remain alive if the vehicle is unable to get past the second barrier and is trapped in the path of the approaching train?
Our thoughts are with the train driver, who desperately applied brakes but had no hope of avoiding the collision. Put yourself in his position; imagine watching a minibus full of children flying through the air and landing 50m ahead of the crossing; imagine the subsequent scene of carnage. Imagine – once he is able to resume work – how he is going to feel every time his train approaches a crossing. Imagine his memories, every time he crosses Buttskop Road.

Original article [Railways Africa]