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S.African luxury train derails, killing two

21 April 2010 23:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A South African luxury train derailed outside the capital Pretoria on Wednesday, killing two workers, including a pregnant woman whose baby was stillborn after the accident, officials said, APA reports quoting AFP.
Train carriages smashed into each other and flipped onto their sides, forcing emergency workers to cut holes into the roofs of the antique wood-panelled cars to rescue survivors.
Two South African women working in the luxury Rovos Rail train were killed. One of the women was pregnant and gave birth after the crash, but the foetus did not survive, said Chris Botha, spokesman for emergency medical services operator Netcare 911.
The US Embassy said it was investigating reports that an American tour group was aboard the train. Ambassador Donald Gips had gone to the scene to determine how many Americans were involved, said spokeswoman Sharon Hudson-Dean.
"We are looking into that right now," she said.
Five people were reported to be critically injured and nine others seriously hurt in the accident that happened 50 days before the start of the football World Cup. Thirty-five people sustained minor injuries, Botha said.
"It’s absolute carnage," Botha told AFP from the scene of the accident.
"Some of the railway coaches are lying on top of each other and absolute wreckages. They had to use hydraulic rescue equipment to cut some of the people free."
Trained dogs were sweeping the wreckage for signs of survivors, he said.
"The crumpled remains of the coaches were spread over a large area with the passengers still trapped in the wreckages," Netcare 911 said in a statement.
The company said it was "miraculous" that 35 people had escaped with just minor injuries.
Luxury liner Rovos Rail confirmed the accident but said it had no details on the nationalities of the passengers involved. A spokesman said much of the company’s business is from Europe and the United States.
"We had a derailment of one of our trains. It was an inbound train from Cape Town to Pretoria," said David Patrick, marketing manager for private luxury rail company Rovos Rail.
"The emergency services are attending to the injured and some of the injured have been taken to hospital," he told AFP.
Safety inspectors said the accident appeared to have happened as the train was changing from an electrical locomotive to Rovos Rail’s emblematic steam engine.
"The rest of the train went into motion and ran away before the steam locomotive could be coupled, resulting in a derailment outside the Blue Train depot in Pretoria," the Railway Safety Regulator said.
"This accident has affected all commuter rail services on the Pretoria main line and the affected portion of the line has been closed until further notice."
The Blue Train is another famed luxury train that runs between Pretoria and Cape Town. The two companies share some of the same stations, but Rovos Rail specialises in operating restored antique trains.
Rovos describes itself on its web site as "the most luxurious train in the world". Tickets on the Cape Town-to-Pretoria route cost from 1,500 to 3,000 dollars (1,100 to 2,200 euros).
Rovos also runs "luxury safaris" to destinations throughout southern and eastern Africa and a 56,000-dollar journey along the length of the continent, from Cape Town to Cairo.
Rovos Rail’s Patrick said the accident was the first involving injuries in the company’s history.
In 2005, a Blue Train had a head-on collision with a Trans Karoo express train in South Africa’s Karoo desert, injuring 16.