09 Mar 2020

Mahalapye Sub-district’s fire department official, Mr Lesika Gaofetoge, says no one from Botswana Railways (BR), called their office to report derailment of BR passenger train 0501 on December 10, 2019.

Testifying before a board of inquiry into the train derailment, Mr Gaofetoge said while on duty around 2a.m, an officer who was incharge of Mahalapye District Hospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS) control centre received a call from one passenger in the derailed train.

Since the fire department was operating from Mahalapye District Hospital, under the EMS, Mr Gaofetoge said he could easily overhear from the EMS officer's telephone conversation that there had been a derailment. 

Immediately after the EMS officer hanged the phone, Mr Gaofetoge said he went  to her to confirm if what he overheard was true. 

Indeed, he said, the EMS officer confirmed to him that the call was from their superior at EMS, Mr Bushi Laba, who was a passenger in the deraild BR passenger train and was informing her about the derailment. “Normally, when there is an accident reported to EMS, the EMS notifies us, instantly. But, on that fateful day, EMS did not alert us about the incident. I only learnt about the derailment by overhearing a telephone conversation from EMS control centre and I went there to enquire further," he said.

Following that report, Mr Gaofetoge said he activated his fire team and they rushed to the scene. 

He said he was accompanied by pump operator, Mr Obakeng Lekwapa and fireman, Mr Oreeditse Diruti. Unfortunately, he said the passenger who reported the incident did not specify the exact location of the accident. 

Therefore, although they left the office at 2:17 am, they arrived late at the scene since they spent time trying to locate the exact place where the train had derailed, 'because to us the accident report came as second hand information.'

Additionally, he said the passenger did not inform the EMS that the BR train crew was trapped in the locomotive. 

He, therefore, stressed that it was important for the team to had been informed about the trapped crew, for them to gather all the necessary equipment and go to the scene well equipped. 

“Omission of this very important information, also led to unnecessary delays in rescuing the trapped train crew,” he said.

Another fireman, Mr Diruti, appealed to the public to always give detailed and specific information when reporting accidents to emergency rescue teams to avoid delays. 

He also revealed that, as firemen, they never got trauma counselling after attending to emergency incidents. Therefore, he emphasised that they believed they also needed such service after handling such traumatic accidents. ends