This article may be excessively based on
contemporary reporting. (March 2024) |
Blackheath train accident | |
---|---|
Details | |
Date | 25 August 2010 07:03 |
Location |
Blackheath,
Blue Downs,
Western Cape 26 km (16 mi) ESE from Cape Town |
Coordinates | 33°58′13″S 18°42′21″E / 33.9702°S 18.7059°E |
Country | South Africa |
Line | Bellville–Stellenbosch |
Operator | Metrorail |
Incident type | Level crossing accident |
Statistics | |
Trains | 1 |
Deaths | 9 |
Injured | 5 |
The Blackheath train accident occurred at 7:03 a.m. on 25 August 2010 when a Metrorail commuter train crashed into a minibus taxi on the Buttskop Road level crossing in Blackheath, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. [1] The minibus was carrying fourteen children to school; nine died on the scene and five were hospitalised. [2] One of the injured children died two days later in the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital. [3] The minibus driver was also hospitalised; [2] there were no injuries aboard the train. [4]
An initial investigation by the Railway Safety Regulator determined that the lights and booms at the crossing were in full working order. [4] Witnesses stated that the minibus drove around a queue of stopped cars and past the closed half-booms blocking the crossing. [5] [6] The driver, Jacob Humphreys, was arrested upon being released from hospital and charged with ten counts of culpable homicide; he was initially held in custody [7] but was later released on bail. [8] On 12 December 2011 he was convicted in the Western Cape High Court on ten counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder [9] and on 28 February 2012 he was sentenced to an effective twenty years in prison. [10] On 22 March 2013 the Supreme Court of Appeal reduced the conviction to culpable homicide and the sentence to an effective eight years' imprisonment. [11]