A large segment of our population uses public transport on a daily basis.  A significant portion makes use of rail transportation (and with the introduction of the “Business Express” and the Gau-train aimed at the upper-end financial segment of the population, these figures are steadily increasing).

The rail services industry is largely dominated and run by para-statal agencies.  These para-statals in turn have certain obligations to the public (which use their trains) and these include the duty of care: whereby a commuter is entitled to certain levels of safety while being conveyed on public transport.

According to media reports, The Report, titled State of Safety, which was compiled by the SA Rail Regulator showed no fewer than 457 people have died on our South African Railways during the year ended March 2011.  The deaths include fatalities causes by train accidents and de-railments, which mostly involved Transnet and PRASA. A total of 1534 people were injured during that period.

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