Eye Witnesses and CAMRAIL officials clash again over death toll of March 8 accident in Yaounde

The March 08 Elig-Edzoa train accident comes to add to the series of accidents that CAMRAIL has been involved in since it started operations in Cameroon in 1999. The railway corporation in a release speak of 2 deaths and 3 persons wounded while eye witness reports contradict the release.
“I think that I counted five deaths on the spot, while two others were seriously injured at the level of the knees” says an eye witness.
This accident is coming close to five months after a CAMRAIL train carrying over 1000 passengers derailed in Ezeka killing at least 80 people and leaving over 300 wounded. The incident which happened the 21st of October 2016 has been described as one of the deadliest accidents of CAMRAIL. This accident was also characterized by great discrepancies between the death toll reported by Rail Way Corporation and eye witnesses reports. The exact number of death is still to be known since the results of the in-depth inquiry ordered by the head of state have not yet been published.
In Agust 2009 CAMRAIL was again involved in two accidents. The first was on the 28th when a train transporting fuel from Douala to Yaound where two people died and 4 others woinded. On 29th another train that left Ngaoundere to Yaounde derailed at Etoudi killing at least 7 and injuring over 300.
In all of these accidents, critics argue that several deceased victims have never been accounted for.
Eye witnesses and other experts in the transportation sector have it that the March 08 train accident could have been avoided if the train locomotive was located at the front rather than the back of the train.
 “When work is been carried out in an Urban area, security measures need to be taken to protect the population. In this case, those measures have not been taken by CAMRAIL” says the Managing Director of a defunct railway maintenance company. “Since the locomotive was located at the back of the train, there was no indication to show that the train is moving. I think this is a fatal error on the part of CAMRAIL” he adds.