By Duncan Mlanjira
Blantyre City Council has promised to speed up reinstalling the warning traffic lights at Chirimba level crossing following an accident that happened early hours of Saturday morning there when a GadaWorld security company’s vehicle rammed into a train.
According to reports, it seems the driver of the vehicle had spotted the train coming and he tried to speed up in order to pass through first instead of giving way.
The GardaWorld vehicle
Commenting to a post by Lucky Tonny Banda on Facebook, some people wondered whether the warning lights were vandalized or damage because they disappeared.
But Blantyre City Council Director of Engineering Services Grant Sichali said the warning lights were removed to pave way for the construction of the dual carriage way from Kameza Roundabout to the Clock Town in Central Business District of the city.
Sichali said they have plans to finally construct a flyover for car traffic once resources shall be mobilized to fund the structure.
The trains are usually very long
He added that they already has engineering designs for the structure awaiting funding but meanwhile they will soon be reinstalling initial conditions of the level crossing with some improvement to sustain traffic passage.
The commentators on Facebook had no kind words for motorists who ram into trains at level crossing, with Bob Khalifa asking: “Don’t our driving instructors teach us to stop at every level crossing even where there is no sign of an incoming train?”
Bright Theu joined in, saying he witnessed a near miss in Limbe last week when a motorist was trying to outpace a train.
A proper level crossing
“Boy, had he known — he realised rather late he couldn’t and so instead chose to ram into another vehicle to avoid the collision.“
Others observed that some motorists do not realise that these trains are fast because they think they take too long to cross the road not realizing that the trains, especially cargo ones, are very long.
The train drivers usually sound their piercing horns a long distance away as they approach a level crossing way and stop the horns as soon as they locomotive engines pass the road because basically they are visible and that flashing lights are expected to be at work.
Jibu Risasi Nyirenda suggested that just as the railway has signs of an approaching level crossing, the signs for motorists should be placed well before the crossing to give drivers enough lead time.
“If you are familiar with the road, perhaps well and good. If not, and it’s in the night, it’s a dicey situation.”
Mbachi Joyce Ng’oma said she was once stopped by the traffic police right after the level crossing going towards Kameza and after his inspection of her car she suggested to the police officer that they’d make more money issuing fines to all the vehicles that didn’t bother to stop at the tracks.
“He simply laughed it off ending with a remark, saying that happens in foreign lands only,” she said.
Some years back, many lives were lost at the same spot when a Stagecoach bus tried to outpace an approaching trains but couldn’t beat it.
It got rammed and dragged several meters away from the crossing, a tragedy that shocked the whole nation.