A young woman in Mutare is lucky to be alive after a dramatic incident on Saturday afternoon, where a quick-thinking train driver prevented what could have been a tragic accident.
The 23-year-old woman, Lisa Shumba, was walking along the railway line near Sakubva while wearing earphones, oblivious to the approaching train behind her. According to the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), the driver sounded the horn multiple times, but Shumba didn’t respond.
Realising she couldn’t hear him, the driver acted fast — throwing a water bottle towards her in a desperate bid to get her attention. The bottle landed just in front of her, jolting her to turn around. She saw the train just metres away and leapt off the tracks — but not before being clipped on the side by the locomotive.
She sustained bruises on her knees and was rushed to hospital, where she was treated and later discharged.
In a statement, NRZ hailed the driver’s actions as heroic. “We salute the engineman for acting swiftly to prevent a fatality. His presence of mind saved a life,” the rail authority said.
The state-owned transporter also used the incident to renew its warning to the public: “Please avoid walking along railway tracks, especially while using earphones. It puts lives at serious risk.”
The near miss comes amid a concerning rise in pedestrian-train accidents across the country. Rail authorities have repeatedly raised the alarm over people treating railway tracks as footpaths, particularly in urban areas.
NRZ says it plans to ramp up its safety awareness campaigns, urging the public to be more vigilant around rail infrastructure.
