Tragedy struck on Tuesday night, 21 January, when a taxi collided with a train at the  railway line crosses close to Masiphathisane Primary in Vredenburg.

A taxi driver was on his way to the Vredenburg Hospital with his girlfriend and sick daughter when he cut across the Louwville railway line in the path of an oncoming freight train. The driver did not make it safely to the other side and the taxi was crushed.

Captain Tania Helfrich, local police spokesperson, confirmed that both mother and daughter died in the collision, and the driver managed to escape.

After 21:00 several residents from Hopland and George Kerridge had gathered on the train tracks as emergency personnel freed the bodies from the wreckage using jaws of life.

Helfrich said a case of culpable homicide was being investigated by local police.