Fifty-seven people were injured, 14 seriously, when a Transnet tamping machine carrying out railway track maintenance crashed into a new Metrorail train at Eerste Fabriek Station in Mamelodi, east of Pretoria on Saturday evening.
Gauteng Metrorail says passengers refused to leave the train when they were asked to do so by the driver when he saw the machine approaching.
It says the tamping machine rolled from Greenview back to Eerste Fabriek Station, where the Metrorail train was stationary.
"The driver of the stationary train requested the 300 commuters on board to leave the train upon noticing the oncoming [tamping] machine. The commuters refused to leave the train, instead pulled the passenger emergency alarm levers which stops the train from moving," Metrorail said.
The injured were taken to the Steve Biko and Tshwane district hospitals.
Metrorail says a board of inquiry will soon investigate the "main cause" of the crash.
- African News Agency
