Theft of barriers caused train derailment

The theft of protective barriers meant to safeguard Jamaica's railway tracks has been directly blamed for the derailment of a bauxite train in the Bog Walk Gorge in St Catherine on Saturday.

These vital barriers were missing when three train cars from the Windalco Bauxite Company derailed, underscoring the dangers posed by infrastructure neglect.

"We used to have some barriers here, but people came and stole them to sell for scrap metal," a site worker assisting with the restoration told THE STAR. "After everything, the plan is to replace them and weld them in."

The train, carrying alumina, derailed near the entrance of the Bog Walk rail tunnel and came dangerously close to the Rio Cobre. While no injuries have been reported, local residents are concerned about contamination from the train's contents.

"If quick action isn't taken, we could have contamination of the Rio Cobre from the contents of the derailed train cars," said one local. The stolen barriers, which were meant to prevent derailments, were crucial to the safety of the track. Their absence has highlighted the ongoing issue of infrastructure neglect.

"People are stealing things left and right," another worker remarked. "It's a problem we've been dealing with for years."

Manley Branded, a permanent weight technician overseeing the restoration, explained that efforts are under way to clear the site.

"Restoration is going well, but how it happened, we can't say. We have to do an investigation first," Branded said. "The train runs two times a day, 365 days a year. We're trying to create a road for the crane to pull up the two carts. The challenge is the terrain; it's an 11-metre drop to the riverbank."

As the recovery team works to clear the wreckage, concerns about the environmental impact of the derailment have emerged. The Rio Cobre, a vital water source for surrounding communities, could face contamination from the alumina carried by the train.

"If the contents of those train cars leak into the river, it could ruin the water supply for hundreds of people," Mr Roper, one of the rescue divers working near the gorge told THE STAR.

With the Bog Walk Gorge being the site of several fatal crashes over the years, some believe that spirits of the deceased sometimes play a role in other incidents. But Roper underscored that the derailment was caused by years of poor maintenance and the degradation of the tracks, not supernatural causes.

"A poor maintenance of the railway, them rotten from the pollen, them rotten, and the heavy train a come down and it sink it, and that caused it to derail," Roper said. "Mi nuh want nobody think about nothing 'bout no duppy or mermaid."

"Mi glad it's not the one (train) that carries the pickney dem from Linstead to Spanish Town. It's better a the bauxite train," he added.