2006 Cape Town truck-train collision
Encyclopedia
The Faure level crossing accident occurred at approximately 8 a.m. on 13 November 2006 when a Metrorail train collided with a truck that had stalled on an uncontrolled level crossing
at Faure near Somerset West, a town outside Cape Town
, South Africa
. The truck was carrying at least thirty-three workers from a local vineyard and there were nineteen fatalities (eleven men and eight women) and six injured people among the occupants of the vehicle. Original estimates had the death toll as high as twenty-seven. but this soon fell to twenty and then nineteen. No passengers on board the train were injured but Metrorail reported that several suffered psychological shock. Witnesses reported seeing smoke but there was no fire.
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
at Faure near Somerset West, a town outside Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. The truck was carrying at least thirty-three workers from a local vineyard and there were nineteen fatalities (eleven men and eight women) and six injured people among the occupants of the vehicle. Original estimates had the death toll as high as twenty-seven. but this soon fell to twenty and then nineteen. No passengers on board the train were injured but Metrorail reported that several suffered psychological shock. Witnesses reported seeing smoke but there was no fire.