'Correct emergency procedures were followed' -Cableway

By Celeste Ganga
23 January 2008

The Table Mountain Cableway Company has reassured visitors the correct emergency procedures were followed on Monday night when an Eskom power outage resulted in people being stranded on the cable cars.

“It’s important to note that when people’s lives are not in danger, we don’t rush such a situation. Safety is paramount and we first needed to ensure that all safety procedures were in place before we completed the 15 trips that it took to get everyone off the mountain.” says CEO of Cableway, Sabine Lehmann.

She explains that the only people whose lives were at risk, were those who ignored instructions from the cabin master and leapt from the cable car to the landing dock at the top cable station.

The cableway has been operating safely for the past 78 years receiving more than 18 million visitors to date.

"Monday night’s operation, in which cableway safely took 900 people down the mountain, was testament of the effectiveness of the cableway’s safety procedures,” says Lehmann.