Another Life Lost on the Tracks: Anger Grows After Second Fatal Train Death in Kempton Park

“Not again, not here”

For residents living near the Germiston–Pretoria commuter rail line in Kempton Park, the news landed like a punch to the chest. Another young woman has died after being struck by a train, at almost the exact same spot where a teenager lost her life just 13 months ago.

The scene is painfully familiar. The tracks, the gap in the boundary wall, the unanswered warnings. And now, another family grieving.

The incident has reignited anger and heartbreak in a community that says this tragedy was not only foreseeable, but preventable.

A danger long flagged, still unfixed

The stretch of rail where the fatality occurred has been repeatedly raised as a safety concern by residents and local DA ward councillor Simon Lapping. It runs alongside an incomplete boundary wall, leaving pedestrians with easy access to active train lines.

That wall, part of Transnet’s rehabilitation programme, has stood half-built for years.

Despite assurances from Transport Minister Barbara Creecy in December that Prasa and Transnet would be pushed to act after the first death, nothing has changed on the ground. Trains resumed service. The wall remained unfinished. The danger stayed.

“They shouldn’t have been able to cross at all”

Lapping drew chilling parallels between the two deaths.

“Both were young women. Both had earphones in,” he said. “They probably didn’t hear the train. But the real issue is this, they should never have been able to access the tracks in the first place.”

That point has become the centre of the community’s frustration: not blaming victims, but questioning why an open, unsecured rail line was allowed to operate after repeated warnings.

A community that feels ignored

Local resident Ashika Pillay says residents have tried everything.

“We’ve asked for the wall to be completed. We’ve asked for a pedestrian bridge. We’ve written, complained, begged,” she said. “Everything has fallen on deaf ears.”

Her words echo sentiments shared widely on local WhatsApp groups and social media, where residents say smaller communities are often overlooked.

“It feels like they had money to get the trains running again,” Pillay added, “but not to secure the people living here.”

Who takes responsibility?

After the first fatality, the Department of Transport confirmed that the Railway Safety Regulator had responded and that Prasa was expected to submit a corrective plan. More than a year later, residents say they’ve seen no visible action.

Transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi has since said accountability lies with the Prasa board. Lapping rejects that explanation.

“The buck stops with the minister,” he said, adding that he has attempted, unsuccessfully, to open criminal cases at several police stations.

A tragedy that didn’t have to happen

This latest death has sharpened a painful question: how many warnings does it take before safety becomes urgent?

For Kempton Park residents, this is no longer about policy statements or blame-shifting. It’s about an exposed railway line, unfinished infrastructure, and two young lives lost in the same place, a year apart.

And until that gap in the wall is closed, many here fear it won’t be the last.