16 Feb 2020

Botswana Railways (BR) wagon shop foreman, stationed in Mahalapye, Mr Justice Mollentze has admitted that the BR breakdown team went to the scene of the BR passenger train 0501 derailment, on December 10, 2019 unequipped, for the sole purpose of assessing the situation. 

Testifying before the board of inquiry into the derailment, Mr Mollentze, who was the breakdown foreman on standby on that day, said they went unprepared to the scene, because ‘we had not expected or I had not expected what happened. We have never seen such kind of a derailment.’ 

“You know, on a derailment of a passenger train, most of the time, it is just the coaches or the locomotive, which derailed, not lying on the side or with the wagons or coaches thrown all over the place. It was very strange. 

We never thought people could be trapped in a locomotive, it’s the first time this happened and we didn’t really anticipate anything like that at all,” he added. 

He was responding to a concern by the board of enquiry, that the BR breakdown team arrived at the derailment scene about two hours later than the other rescue teams, though they were 25 kilometres away from the scene. 

“Two hours for a distance of 25 kilometres was not the best response. That was not good enough,” said one board member, Mr Bartholomew Seithamo.

Unfortunately, Mr Mollentze said, they did not have much information about the derailment, and had thought if it was just a simple derailment, they could just call the breakdown team, from the scene after assessing the situation, and they could arrive there quickly. 

As a breakdown foreman, he said he was supposed to have played a meaningful role. However, he said when a derailment included wash away, they go to the scene and assess first. In addition to that, he said if they had information from someone who had already assessed the scene, they would have acted as per the information. 

“But, this time, since the derailment was not far from where we were, and we knew exactly that it was due to water, which from experience we have seen that we cannot immediately go into site when the water is still rushing through, we had to wait and see clearly after the water had subsided. But this time because we didn’t have anything at all, we had to go there and assess; and that depends on what my manager says,” he explained.

As he was not on duty on December 09, 2019, he said he was informed about the derailment, on December 10, by BR senior technician (locomotive maintenance), Mr Mogakolodi Thobosi, who called him at 2:25 am.  During that phone call, Mr Mollentze said, Mr Thobosi told him that they must relief to go and assess the derailment, but he did not relay to him any details of the accident, because he did not have any information. 

“We left Mahalapye at 3:15 am. When we got to Pallaroad, we passed where the train had derailed and we went as far as the level crossing to go and look for an entry to the scene. We then parked next to the level crossing and we walked along the railway line, from the level crossing to where the train had derailed- about one kilometre,” he explained.

Explaining why the BR employees who were trapped in the train were rescued by other rescue teams, not BR breakdown team, he said when they arrived at the scene at 3:50 am, the teams were already there. For that reason, he said they then observed the recovery of the injured and evacuation from the locomotive, which had fallen on its side. 

“We could not go and interrupt what they had already started. We assessed the derailment of the coaches and then we walked back to our vehicle, got into the vehicle and went round on the road to get access to the other side of the stream to assess the locomotive and other coaches, which were on the Northern side,” said Mr Mollentze.

He admitted that the incident was a wakeup call for them, as the BR breakdown team, that in future, they should go to the accident scene well equipped.

In his testimony, BR assistant mechanical engineer, Mr Thabiso Moleele, said when determining what could have transpired, while he was at the scene, he saw that there was a wash away and the train went through a suspended rail, ‘hence the derailment.’

Based on the experience he got from attending derailments, Mr Moleele also opined that ‘looking at the arrangement of the coaches, it clearly showed that speed was involved.’

Additionally, he said ‘when a train is moving at a high speed, either 60 km per hour or more, if it derails, you’ll find that, after the accident the wagons or coaches, would become stationery in a zigzag formation. 

 That is normally the indication and it’s something I have picked over the years.” 

He said he suggested, by posting on BR Operations WhatsApp group at 8:06 pm, that train movement be halted ‘and resume in the morning when everything was clear and visible as there was no telling how much flow was coming.’

His communication, he said was a response following a post by the BR civil engineer, Mr Tumelo, which said that ‘kilometric peg 267.5 to 285 has had heavy flows, but the track is safe.’ 

However, he said Mr Tumelo responded, saying ‘water is just flowing, it’s not the exact words, but it was water is just flowing, if we don’t have any rains, it will be safe for running trains.’

Given the heavy rains, Mr Moleele said he believed the weather conditions, during the day of the accident, outweighed the final decision to permit operation of trains. ends