South Africa tourist train crash claims third victim

12 April 2012

Three people including a pregnant woman were killed when a tourist train derailed near Pretoria in South Africa.

The three were all staff aboard the Rovos Rail train, which was carrying 55 passengers including four Britons on a £2,000 "golden age of travel" trip.

Seven passengers remained in hospital today including one critically injured American. Two of the victims died at the scene, including the pregnant woman, but the third died in hospital overnight.

Power tools had to be used to cut some passengers from the wreckage. Crumpled cars on their sides with broken windows littered the site.

The cause is being investigated. The train stopped on its journey from Cape Town to Pretoria for a routine change from an electric to a steam engine.

Nothemba Dlali, of South Africa's Metro Rail, said the train began moving before the steam engine could be attached, and gathered speed while rolling down a slope.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT