- Two people were injured when a bridge collapsed in Jeppestown on Wednesday.
- The footbridge is old and constant movement caused the collapse.
- Joburg’s Safety MMC said there were many bridges on the verge of collapse.
The City of Joburg’s MMC for Public Safety, Mgcini Tshwaku, warned that the pedestrian bridge, which collapsed on Wednesday, could have been a major disaster if the bridge had collapsed during peak hour traffic.
Two people narrowly escaped serious injuries after the bridge, owned by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), collapsed as they were crossing.
The bridge is at least 50 years old and is used by hundreds of people daily, who cross from Jeppestown, east of the Johannesburg CBD, to factories near the M2 highway.
Paramedics at the scene said a woman had been left with soft tissue damage.
It’s understood the other victim, a man, may have to have his ankle amputated due to the severity of his injuries.
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Tshwaku, who was at the scene, said if the collapse had happened in peak hour traffic, when hundreds of people used the bridge, and the trains were running, it would have been a mass casualty incident.
Tshwaku, who has a background in engineering, said the collapse happened because of vibrational fatigue due to the bridge moving with the trains underneath for many years.
A Prasa pedestrian bridge collapsed in Jeppestown, Gauteng on Wednesday. Two people were injured.
He said the bridge had recently begun to tilt.
Prasa said the collapse was being investigated.
It said the line to the East Rand had recently been recovered, and it had been running test trains when the collapse happened.
The line was prioritised for rebuilding in this financial year.
Tshwaku said that, even though it was not the City’s property, he, along with Transport MMC Kenny Kunene, had raised the issue of bridges potentially collapsing.
“We have flagged a number of bridges that have the potential to collapse. This was not on that list and is not the property of the City. But it was part of the disaster waiting to happen,” he said.
He added:
We should have done better; [the bridge] was tilting.
Tshwaku said the incident did not speak to the City’s infrastructure because it was a Prasa bridge, but added that he remained concerned about the infrastructure, especially because of water and load shedding.
“Water shedding and load shedding are a nightmare. Load shedding is causing fires. [On Tuesday], a student was burned because he left the stove on during load shedding – and, when the power came back, the whole building was on fire.”
He said the pressure that came with switching water on and off was causing the old water pipes to break.
“If there’s air in the pipes, they have to turn the water off [and remove it], or the pressure could cause the pipes to explode,” he said.