20 Dec 2019

Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Thulagano Segokgo says the preliminary report on the Botswana Railways passenger train accident indicates that the rail line sheared off leading to the first point of derailment.
Delivering a statement in Parliament on December 19, Mr Segokgo said some slippers were observed to have broken while some had shifted upstream on the direction of water flow.
He also observed that part of the rail culvert was also broken on the inlet side of the water flow and the forward portion of the occurrence train veered off the rail line.
The Botswana Railways passenger train derailed near Pallaroad on December 9 and two people lost their lives.
Mr Segokgo said the investigator had managed to recover an event recorder commonly known as the black box from the train.
He, however, declined to share the information from the black box saying it was subject to further scrutiny and interpretation by the investigating team and assessors.
He further said investigations were done in accordance with the Railway Accident Inquiry Act (cap 70:02), which was clear and explicit in relation to what should be done in circumstances of this nature.
He highlighted that the inquiry relating to the accident would be done in accordance with the requirements of the law and will be conducted in public in accordance to Section 10 of the Act.
 Thus the minister implored any person with information that would assist the investigating team to achieve its objective to make such available.
 He said the final report would be completed in three months. ends