S. Africa: Most victims home from hospital after train crash
Jul 18, 2015, 9:42 AM
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The final count of commuters injured in a rush hour train collision on Friday has been revised to 239 people, down from the more than 300 originally reported, a spokeswoman for the South African rail service said on Saturday.
Only eight people were still hospitalized, said Lillian Mofokeng, the Metrorail spokeswoman for the Gauteng province.
“There is no one that is critically injured,” she said. No fatalities were reported.
Mofokeng said she left the scene of the accident in the early hours of Saturday morning after all the injured had been rushed to hospital.
“We have managed to clear the scene but technicians are still repairing the area,” she said. The area where the collision took place is still closed and commuters travelling on the affected route are being transported by bus. Thousands of commuters ride this route each day, she said.
The accident happened at rush hour on Friday between two stations, with both trains traveling from the Johannesburg city center to the township of Soweto. The trains were on the same track when a moving train crashed into the back of a stationary train.
The exact cause of the accident is still unknown and an investigation is underway, said Mofokeng.
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