| Blackheath train accident | |
| Coordinates: | -33.9702°N 18.7059°W |
| Date: | 25 August 2010 |
| Time: | 07:03 |
| Location: | Blackheath, Blue Downs, Western Cape |
| Location Dir: | ESE |
| Location City: | Cape Town |
| Location Dist Km: | 26 |
| Country: | South Africa |
| Line: | Bellville - Stellenbosch |
| Operator: | Metrorail |
| Type: | Level crossing accident |
| Trains: | 1 |
| Deaths: | 9 |
| Injuries: | 5 |
The Blackheath train accident occurred at 7:03 a.m. on 25 August 2010 when a Metrorail commuter train crashed into a minibus taxi on the Buttskop Road level crossing in Blackheath, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.[1] The minibus was carrying fourteen children to school; nine died on the scene and five were hospitalised.[2] One of the injured children died two days later in the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital.[3] The minibus driver was also hospitalised; there were no injuries aboard the train.[4]
An initial investigation by the Railway Safety Regulator determined that the lights and booms at the crossing were in full working order. Witnesses stated that the minibus drove around a queue of stopped cars and past the closed half-booms blocking the crossing.[5] [6] The driver, Jacob Humphreys, was arrested upon being released from hospital and charged with ten counts of culpable homicide; he was initially held in custody[7] but was later released on bail.[8] On 12 December 2011 he was convicted in the Western Cape High Court on ten counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder[9] and on 28 February 2012 he was sentenced to an effective twenty years in prison.[10] On 22 March 2013 the Supreme Court of Appeal reduced the conviction to culpable homicide and the sentence to an effective eight years' imprisonment.[11]