- A robber pulled a woman from a moving train during a robbery near Nyanga in 2011.
- The High Court found PRASA negligent for allowing the train to travel with open carriage doors.
- PRASA was held liable for 100% of the commuter’s proven damages and ordered to pay her legal costs.
A woman who was dragged from a moving train during a robbery has succeeded in holding the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) liable, with the High Court in Cape Town ruling that the rail operator failed in its duty to protect commuters.
Acting Judge S Yake found that PRASA’s negligence lay in allowing the train to travel with its carriage doors open, creating the very danger that led to the commuter being pulled onto the railway tracks.
Robbery turns into horror
Aisha Barnabas was travelling home from work on 9 May 2011 on a train from Cape Town to Mitchells Plain. After boarding the second train at Cape Town station, she was forced to stand because the carriage was crowded, while its doors remained open throughout the journey.
As the train departed Nyanga station, about five men began robbing passengers. Panic spread through the coach as commuters tried to escape the attackers. Barnabas was pushed towards the open doorway, where one of the robbers grabbed her handbag and jumped from the moving train, dragging her out with him.
She crashed onto the railway tracks, suffering a severe leg laceration, a head injury and a dislocated shoulder before being taken for medical treatment.
PRASA’s defence rejected
PRASA denied negligence and argued that Barnabas had failed to prove she was a fare-paying passenger. It also claimed she was solely responsible for her injuries, or had contributed to them.
The court rejected those arguments, holding that PRASA’s duty to protect passengers exists independently of whether a commuter can produce a valid ticket.
Yake found the evidence of Barnabas and her witness credible despite minor inconsistencies, describing them as natural after the passage of 15 years. By contrast, the judge found PRASA’s investigator had no first-hand knowledge of the incident and relied largely on records compiled by someone else.
Open doors amounted to negligence
The court held that trains travelling with open doors expose every passenger onboard to foreseeable harm and breach PRASA’s constitutional and legal obligations as a public carrier.
In one of the judgment’s strongest findings, Yake said, “The defendant was obliged to ensure that the train did not depart the station with open doors.”
The judge added that allowing the doors to remain open meant PRASA had “failed in its legal duty” towards commuters and that its omission amounted to negligence.
No contributory negligence
PRASA also failed to convince the court that Barnabas had accepted the risks associated with standing near an open doorway.
Instead, the evidence showed she had been caught in the chaos of a violent robbery and was forcibly dragged from the train by an assailant attempting to steal her bag. The court found there was no basis to apportion blame to her.
PRASA was ordered to compensate Barnabas for 100% of her proven damages, with the amount to be determined in later proceedings, and to pay her legal costs.
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