Eyewitness: 'We saw bodies everywhere'

Administrator Stevlan Meyer, 22, who was travelling to work on the train that collided with a truck carrying farm workers just outside Cape Town in South Africa, tells how he cannot get the crash scene out of his head.

The scene is still in my head, everything that happened.

The truck was crossing rail tracks near Somerset West

I can't get it out of my head.

My friends and I were on the train this morning, going into Cape Town, when we just heard this banging noise.

At first we didn't realise that anything was wrong. You see, brake-pulling and people being knocked and jolted around is quite normal. It really is the norm.

But then we saw smoke everywhere and that really freaked us out. Everybody got a big fright.

The carriages then started slowly, steadily to slow down and everybody was jumping out of the train doors.

The police were on the scene in not even five minutes. I tell you, I was so impressed

The police were on the scene in not even five minutes.

I tell you, I was so impressed. They were good.

Once we were out of the train and got our bearings - we were between Faure and Firgrove stations.

My friends and I had two choices... one choice was for us to walk back to Faure, or we could walk to Firgrove. Faure was closest but Firgrove was on the way home.

We decided on Firgrove.

Hectic

And then we just saw bodies everywhere.

We saw that the front part of the train was now the back part of the lorry

We were walking towards the station and one of my friends said: "Oh my God."

There was a man lying in the road but this guy had no head.

We saw that the front part of the train was now the back part of the lorry.

I saw these two people, but they were not separate. The two bodies were joined together - I only recognised that there were two guys because there were two different sets of clothes.

The accident happened shortly before 0800 local time (0600 GMT)

It was so hectic.

The vehicle carrying them must have been a truck or a 'bakkie' [pick-up truck].

It wasn't a car - considering the amount of people that were lying there, it must have been a truck.

My friend called her uncle and he came to pick us up after the police moved us away from the area.

I am now at home, still in a bit of shock.

I keep thinking that everything happens for a reason and maybe in 10, 20 years' time I'll know why I had to go through this today.