Driver killed in train crash

A TRANSNAMIB train driver died on Tuesday night and his assistant was rushed to hospital after a freight train derailed and crashed just outside Windhoek.

The train had been travelling from Aris in the south to Windhoek, and was carrying a 500-tonne load of ballast – rocks used to build railway lines. Police identified the man who died as 37-year-old Sydney Bessel Coetzee.His assistant, who reportedly broke six ribs and a collarbone, is receiving treatment in a Windhoek hospital.TransNamib’s Trains Operating Inspector, Gideon Eiseb, said yesterday that the circumstances that led to the accident still had to be established.”There have been some serious collisions before, but this is the first (train) accident I’ve seen where someone was killed,” Eiseb commented.This investigation by the company, according to another source, will include establishing the condition of the train before it left the station, the condition of the driver and determining the speed it was travelling at the time of the derailment.The loss to TransNamib was provisionally estimated at over a million Namibia dollars.The damage includes a completely destroyed locomotive, eight damaged wagons, damage to the railway line and the cost of removing the wreck from the line.The two men had been in contact with the appropriate stations throughout their journey, Eiseb told The Namibian.When the train failed to arrive in Windhoek at the scheduled time of 22h00, it was discovered that it had derailed on a curve a few metres from the Police roadblock between Windhoek and Rehoboth.Eiseb said the railway line would be reopened by today.A TransNamib crew were removing the wreck and repairing the line throughout the day yesterday.TransNamib staff spoken to on the scene yesterday commented that the locomotive was about 40 years old.Police identified the man who died as 37-year-old Sydney Bessel Coetzee.His assistant, who reportedly broke six ribs and a collarbone, is receiving treatment in a Windhoek hospital.TransNamib’s Trains Operating Inspector, Gideon Eiseb, said yesterday that the circumstances that led to the accident still had to be established.”There have been some serious collisions before, but this is the first (train) accident I’ve seen where someone was killed,” Eiseb commented.This investigation by the company, according to another source, will include establishing the condition of the train before it left the station, the condition of the driver and determining the speed it was travelling at the time of the derailment.The loss to TransNamib was provisionally estimated at over a million Namibia dollars.The damage includes a completely destroyed locomotive, eight damaged wagons, damage to the railway line and the cost of removing the wreck from the line.The two men had been in contact with the appropriate stations throughout their journey, Eiseb told The Namibian.When the train failed to arrive in Windhoek at the scheduled time of 22h00, it was discovered that it had derailed on a curve a few metres from the Police roadblock between Windhoek and Rehoboth.Eiseb said the railway line would be reopened by today.A TransNamib crew were removing the wreck and repairing the line throughout the day yesterday.TransNamib staff spoken to on the scene yesterday commented that the locomotive was about 40 years old.