Africa-Press – Namibia. IT may as well become another of Namibia’s tourist attractions: TransNamib’s mysterious rented N$20 million locomotive that chugged from Walvis Bay to Swakopmund on its own, lying down to rest after the long, lone 40 km-journey, after the train driver allegedly in hot pursuit in a taxi lost the race.
Maybe it should not be moved from where it fell on its side on a rail track curve near the Swakopmund station on Sunday around 17:15, and was still lying on Tuesday afternoon.
It could lure thousands to the scene, where the alleged driver will be the only one who could tell the unbelievable tale to awestruck tourists and children, explaining exactly what happened on that day.
For nobody seems to know. Not even TransNamib, who by Tuesday still had not issued a promised statement about the very costly and unfortunate incident.
A driver reportedly was behind the wheel for a few seconds when the brand new, red locomotive TransNamib rented from a South African company left Walvis Bay.
Some say the driver had to jump out with the departing from Walvis Bay to manually switch the route changing track system himself. Unfortunately the driver was too slow to catch up with the train that merrily sped away to Swakopmund.
Since no TransNamib pickups were available, the hapless and by then very agitated driver summoned a taxi in haste, and the chase was on. The train arrived in Swakop first but without proper guidance took a turn too fast and ungracefully fell on its side.
The driver finally caught up when crowds had already gathered at the scene, looking for the driver who he then helped look for. It is not known if he found himself.
According to an engineer at the scene on Tuesday, incidents such as these are caused by human error and not infrastructure. He said the main line is undamaged and remains open, while the sideline on which the locomotive fell has been closed indefinitely.
Other inspectors at the scene referred Informanté to the Chief Executive Officer of TransNamib, Johny Smith, who in turn said a statement would be issued and that he had no additional comments.
When the laughter subsides, one commenter sums it up: “Thank God nobody was hurt but our infrastructure is too valuable to be damaged like this. The question is: What will Johny do?”
Sunday’s incident took place not far from where another TransNamib accident on 16 March claimed a driver’s life. Four locomotives and 25 wagons transporting fuel and other cargo were then involved.
In the absence of a TransNamib statement, police reports had to be relied on regarding the accident on Sunday. According to the Erongo police, there was a driver on board the train. Ndjamba Eail, travelling alone, reportedly escaped without any injuries when it derailed.
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