Burnt woman’s horror train ordeal
Commuter Leigh Jansen faces a long recovery after being badly burnt when a carriage was cruelly set alight
SHE’D been travelling to work and back by train for 15 years and considered herself a savvy commuter. She kept an eye on her belongings, watched out for potential pickpockets and thugs, and had her office on speed-dial to warn them when trains were delayed – as they often were.
So when Leigh Jansen of Southfield, Cape Town, found herself in a carriage with just one other woman as the train took off early one winter morning in May, she breathed a sigh of relief.
For once the train was on time and she didn’t have to worry about dodgy characters. Little did she know the horror that awaited her.
Leigh, a 42-year-old single mom of one, has been in hospital ever since that day, battling life-changing injuries after an act of vandalism and violence that defies understanding.
Two men poured petrol into the carriage – located just behind the driver’s cab – in which Leigh and her fellow commuter were riding, then tossed lit matches into the liquid and leapt off the train.
The other woman died in the inferno and Leigh, who managed to leap from a window, sustained third-degree burns to her face and upper body.
For eight days she couldn’t speak due to damage to her throat from the flames and smoke inhalation, and it would be two weeks before she was able to eat again – and even then she could manage only a bit of soft fruit and yoghurt.
“She’s been through agony,” says her mom, Ursula Schenker, speaking to YOU from her home in Plumstead, Cape Town. “Leigh is a real talker – I mean, you should be here when there’s a family gathering. This one is talking over that one and you must shout to get a word in.”
Watching her daughter unable to communicate was hell, she says. It will be months before Leigh is able to resume her life “and she says she’ll never, ever travel by train again”.