The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) notes the findings in the preliminary report of the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) that the driver of the scholar transport that collided with a train, killing six children, was at fault.

The accident took place at a level crossing at Arnot in Mpumalanga last Wednesday. It appears the driver of the school bus did not comply with the signage at the level crossing and consequently collided with the train. Five pupils died at the scene, the sixth died later died in hospital, while 20 sustained injuries. 

COSATU sends its sincerest condolences to the families of the deceased children and hopes that with time the survivors will heal from the trauma.

The RSR report found that the signage at the level crossing was largely compliant with protective standards and that the driver did not adhere to it, resulting in the crush. Road safety authorities and the rail operator are set to continue with their investigations.

Given there have been numerous devastating scholar transport accidents claiming the lives of children, with the previous one in Gauteng killing 11 schoolchildren, COSATU is calling on the Department of Basic Education to work with the Department of Transport to put measures in place to ensure our children are transported to and from school safely daily.  This includes enforcing our traffic laws on speeding and overloading, and ensuring the safety of passengers, for example, wearing of seatbelts and passenger vehicles being certified to transport passengers. All too often these laws are wantonly ignored with no consequence.

It is equally critical that President Cyril Ramaphosa urgently assents to the Railway Safety Amendment Bill which will significantly enhance the powers of the RSR to ensure safety on our railways. This needs to be accompanied by an aggressive safety campaign by Metro Rail, Transnet and local government to ensure all railway sidings, particularly those in residential communities and that experience high traffic volumes.  It is beyond scandalous and a national shame that so many of our railway crossings are not secured.  Time and again some miscreant public passenger driver jumps the railway lines and children, and their families pay a horrific price.

It does not bode well as a nation for parents to wonder whether their children will come home alive each time they leave home to go to school. Parents also must scrutinise the vehicles that transport their children and where possible interact with the driver to assess their general attitude to road safety.

Issued by COSATU

Zanele Sabela(COSATU National Spokesperson)

Mobile: 079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639

Email: zanele@cosatu.org.za