16 Jan 2020

An engine man at Botswana Railways (BR) Mr Solomon Mookodi has called for visibility and improvement at the Botswana Railway (BR) safety department.

Mr Mookodi, who is based in Lobatse, told the board of enquiry which has been set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the train accident that happened near Bonwapitse in December last year, that safety department at BR is not visible and should be improved.

He said everything was left on the workers to ensure that there was safety, adding that safety department at BR should make sure that the workers were safe and they were doing the right things.

Mr Mookodi said there were quite a lot that needed the department’s attention. 

He said there were no surprise checks on sections at BR and no speed checks.

He said he wondered why the trains were running that day because they saw pictures on the Whatsup group showing that there were floods.

Mr Mookodi said that the area where the accident happened was a flood prone area and in the situation of the rains of that magnitude he could have had a problem to proceed. 

“I could have demanded somebody to go and inspect the area before I pass,” he said.

He said on the day before the accident he was the one who was supposed to have driven the train, which was involved in the accident, but was made aware that there was a training programme for a learner driver which was on- going on.

He said that he was removed from the roster by the station foreman, who was in direct control of the movements of trains. 

He said he was slotted in the next shift because the learner driver had to get his qualifications.

He said the learner driver was with one Mr Seima, who boarded the train with the learner. 

He said he was then slotted for the December 10 train.

Mr Mookodi told the enquiry board that during training, the qualifying learner does their job under supervision and they had to be given a chance to drive the train.

He said that it was normal practice to qualify a learner driver with a passenger train instead of a freight train. 

He said he (Mr Mookodi) was also qualified with a passenger train. 

He explained that during training there was a stage where those who were qualified use freight train and for them to pass their training they would also have to qualify with passenger train. 

He further said that the learner drivers were given certain numbers of trainings before they qualified to drive trains.

Mr Mookodi told the enquiry board that if he was the one who was assigned to work with the learner driver, he was going to give her a chance to drive the train under his supervision because it was a general practice at BR.

Asked whether the learner driver was taken on goods train, Mr Mookodi said he was sure that she was trained on goods train because she once took a trip to Mafikeng with an instructor.

Mr Mookodi admitted that it was raining and also not safe for the learner driver to have been given a train to drive.

Another employee of BR Mr Marshall Smith, who is a train man told the inquiry board that the seats at the locomotive did not have armrests and they were not comfortable.  

He said they also did not have safety belts, which he opined could have helped during the December accident. Ends