The theme of the Private Notice Question of the Leader of the Opposition was on security measures following the three recent fatal accidents involving a tram of the Metro Express. In his response, the Minister of Transport confirmed that there have been three fatal accidents involving Metro Express Ltd trains… one in 2022, the second in March 2023 and the third last Friday in Quatre-Bornes.
Regarding the last accident, Alan Ganoo explained that the victim was walking on the rails when he was hit by the train. He confirmed that the barriers had been installed on the right-hand side towards Belle-Road. He insisted that maximum brakes had been applied.
Alan Ganoo also pointed out that barriers had been installed where they had been recommended by safety audits. Xavier-Luc Duval insisted that barriers be installed along the Metro Express routes to avoid such tragedies. To this, Minister Ganoo replied: “If we go by the logic of the leader of the opposition, should we install fencing along every road of the country, even the motorway, because people also walk along these roads?”
In response to several other questions from the Leader of the Opposition, Alan Ganoo indicated that in the three fatal accidents, the victims were all at fault. He explained that, in the case of the woman who died in Curepipe, the CCTV footage showed that she had suddenly fallen onto the tracks. In the case of 2020, he recalled that he had run lights to end up on the Metro Express track. Finally, in the last case, the man was walking on the tracks.
