Transport parastatal, TransNamib, should get to the bottom of its recent disaster, the train derailment late on Tuesday night, that resulted in several wagons overturning and tragically cut short the life of locomotive driver, Sydney Bessel Coetzee (37), while seriously injuring George Sankandi who miraculously survived the horrific crash near Heroes’ Acre.
Though incidents of this nature are beyond human control, they could be minimised and true to the adage “prevention is better than cure”, the possible cost implications could be reduced if those employed to make sure the highest safety standards are met execute their duties.
There are worse accidents in terms of human toll elsewhere, and in Namibia we should count ourselves lucky that the number of fatalities from local accidents are easily dwarfed by mortalities elsewhere, but this should not create room for any complacency.
If reports permeating our newsroom are true that there was laxity, or rather negligence, on the part of the engineers paid to maintain and to rectify any defects detected in the mechanical components of the wagons and the engine, surely TransNamib is not only legally answerable but it should take firm action against those implicated while ensuring the survivor and the family of the deceased are adequately and sufficiently compensated.
If the cause of the runaway train was mechanical, the head of the engineering department should also be held legally liable and so should the whole maintenance crew.
TansNamib is looking into instituting a thorough investigation through an independent commission of inquiry comprising of scene-of-accident investigators and experts on locomotives and how they function. Should they be exonerated, TransNamib should ensure avoidable accidents are history.
Because if they are to be taken to court, their legal bills could be prohibitive in terms of legal fees and the compensatory money they could end up having to fork out to both the family of the bereaved and to Sankandi for the serious bone fractures he sustained while he was on duty.
The shameful failure to execute one’s obligations, or dereliction of duty, is a dismissible offence and those found guilty should be brave enough to dance to the music of their own making, because you cannot prepare a bed of thorns and expect another soul to lie in it.
In the current case, it may seem those trying to hide anything would sooner rather than later be exposed, and it will be too late and too little to show genuine remorse for recklessness and gross negligence of duty because the truth will always prevail.
We are not trying to be judgmental, but it seems each workplace has its own deadwood trying to ride on the backs of others because of the freeloader mentality in our midst.
While there are Namibians who toil and honestly try to make the best out of their jobs, unfortunately there are numerous other incompetent individuals who, as a matter of habit, have failed the nation with impunity from time to time, and without ever being brought to account.
We hope that this accident will not be attributed to negligence brought about by such failures.
Lessons should therefore be drawn and learned from this tragic accident to ensure that TransNamib is not caught up in a similar dilemma several months or even years down the line, in order to ensure passenger or freight trains remain one of the cheapest and safest modes of transport.