A total of 375 people lost their lives on South Africa’s rail network in the year up to March 2019, according to government information released this week.

Addressing the media on Tuesday at a railway safety conference in Stellenbosch, Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula made public figures contained in the latest State of Safety Report, which said that 3,990 “operational occurrences” – including derailments, collisions, level crossing accidents – had led to the deaths of 375 people on the country’s rail network in the financial year ending on March 2019.

Of the total, 284 people died after being struck by trains, while 30 died “as a result of criminal activity,” a 30 percent increase over the previous year.

Mbalula said while the latest figures were a 17 percent drop from the previous reporting period, the number remained “alarmingly high”.

“These numbers should not only be cause for alarm, but should spur us into action to reverse this trend,” he told conference delegates.

In August, Mbalula launched a so-called war room to deal with the inefficiencies and breakdowns of the country’s rail network.