Leon Muller
VICTIMS: Arend Hendricks and his wife, Carolina, with Primilda Jacobs outside the Western Cape High Court. PICTURES: LEON MULLER
It was an ordinary morning, like most others.
Arend Hendricks sat next to his wife Carolina on the back of the three-ton truck, cramped next to 28 or so fellow farm workers.
As usual, his mind was far away, thinking about their children at school and what the day held for them because, as he pointed out, “one thinks about things… people don’t just think nothing”.
At times he and the rest of the crew looked at the view and chatted, but there was nothing unusual about the early morning banter; nothing he can remember, at any rate.
The truck approached the Croyden level crossing near Faure, and the driver stopped briefly before moving across the tracks.
Then he suddenly saw it: a train approaching – fast.
It came out of nowhere – he didn’t hear any warning signal or hooter – and he knew that there was no way of escaping.
“Look out, here’s death,” he shouted to the others.
But it was too late.
The two collided with great force, killing 21 farm workers and the truck driver, Gert Zeelie.
This was the story the 41-year-old Dassenberg man described to the Western Cape High Court this week, when he testified in the damages action his wife and another farm worker, Primilda Jacobs, lodged against Metrorail and the SA Rail Commuter Corporation, now known as the Passenger Rail Agency of SA.
The horror smash occurred on November 13, 2006, and Hendricks recalled the day clearly: “I grabbed my wife to protect her.”
But he realised that his attempts would be of no use, so he instead jumped off the back of the truck.
There was, however, not time for him to save her too.
She sustained serious injuries to her head, scalp, neck, face and left knee.
Jacobs also didn’t escape in time. She injured her head, pelvis, abdomen, chest and left leg.
Neither were able to go back to work and each are suing for more than R1 million for loss of income, medical expenses and general damages.
The women allege that Metrorail and the commuter corporation were negligent in failing to install a boom at the level crossing to prevent trucks and other vehicles from crossing the railway line when a train was approaching.
In addition, they allege that adequate speed restrictions were not enforced in that area, and proper signage was absent.
The case is being heard as a test case because the outcome is likely to impact on injury and loss-of-support claims from other injured passengers, and the families of those who were killed.
But Metrorail and the commuter corporation have denied allegations of negligence, saying in papers that the incident was the result only of Zeelie’s negligence.
According to Morne Kershoff, the son of the workers’ employer Martin Kershoff, it was Zeelie’s first day on the job.
He testified that he sat next to Zeelie and had no reason to believe he wasn’t capable of doing the job.
In fact, if he felt uneasy, he said he would have asked one of the other employees to take over.
As they drove, he warned Zeelie of the approaching level crossing, and saw that he slowed down and stopped to check that it was safe to continue.
However, as they drove over the railway line, the truck stalled.
Kershoff looked at him to see what was wrong, and that was when he saw the train approaching.He saw Zeelie frantically trying to start the ignition, and decided to jump to save himself.
But before he could, the train smashed into the truck, he said.
The case continues. – Sunday Argus
View the original here:
Survivors want Metrorail to pay