Home Tags Posts tagged with "derailment"
derailment
Two Moscow metro workers have been arrested for safety breaches after a train derailed, killing 21 people, Russian investigators have announced.
The track supervisor and his assistant are suspected of using inadequate wiring during works on the line in May, the Investigative Committee said.
They have been questioned and charges are expected to be brought soon, it said in a statement.
A power surge is said to have caused the crash, which injured 162 people.
Wednesday has been officially declared a day of mourning in Moscow.
Two Moscow metro workers have been arrested for safety breaches after a train derailed, killing 21 people (photo AP)
The two men arrested, named as track supervisor Valery Bashkatov and assistant supervisor Yury Gordov, are suspected of failing to properly monitor work carried out on a track switch mechanism in an underground tunnel.
“The switch mechanism was fixed with ordinary 3-mm wire, which snapped,” the Investigative Committee said.
The Moscow metro, one of the world’s busiest, is a vital transport artery for the city, transporting more than nine million people on weekdays below its traffic-clogged streets.
The train derailed between Slaviansky Boulevard and Park Pobedy (Victory Park) stations in the west of the city.
More than 1,100 people were evacuated.
The packed commuter train was travelling from the north-west of Moscow to the city centre at the time of the crash.
The tunnel where crash happened was built about 10 years ago.
Critics accuse the authorities of spending too much on extending the metro system, and not enough on maintenance.
Park Pobedy is the deepest metro station in Moscow, 84m (275ft) underground, which made the rescue operation particularly hard.
No foreigners were among the injured, the Interfax news agency said.
Militant attacks on Russia’s railways and transport networks have killed dozens of people in the past, but the emergencies ministry said there was no suspicion of such a cause in this case.
The death toll of this morning’s Moscow metro crash has risen to 19, the Russian emergency ministry has announced.
Scores were injured, some seriously, when a packed commuter train braked abruptly between stations in the west of the city in the morning rush hour.
Some of those hurt were carried out of the tunnel on stretchers, with the most serious cases airlifted to hospital.
The cause of the crash – one of the worst incidents ever on the metro – is reported to be a power surge.
The train derailed between Slaviansky Boulevard and Park Pobedy (Victory Park) stations in the west on the city.
The death toll of this morning’s Moscow metro crash has risen to 19
Some 50 people were in a serious condition, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported, quoting a health official.
“The train slowed down abruptly, the lights went off, and then there was a spark of fire and smoke. We were blocked in,” one passenger told Russian TV.
Another, quoted by Reuters news agency, said: “We were trapped and only got out by some miracle. I thought it was the end. Many people were hurt, mostly in the front carriage because the cars ran into each other.”
A number of bodies were recovered from the wrecked carriages but some remained underground, officials said.
More than 1,100 people were evacuated.
The packed commuter train was travelling from the north-west of Moscow to the city centre at the time of the crash.
The tunnel where crash happened was built about 10 years ago.
Critics accuse the authorities of spending too much on extending the metro system, and not enough on maintenance.
Park Pobedy is the deepest metro station in Moscow, 84m (275ft) deep, which is making the rescue particularly hard.
No foreigners were among the injured, the Interfax news agency said.
Militant attacks on Russia’s railways and transport networks have killed dozens of people in the past, but the emergencies ministry said there was no suspicion of such a cause in this case.
[youtube l6frUdWiMTk 650]
At least three people have been killed and over 80 injured as a train derailed on the Moscow Metro on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya dark blue Metro line on Tuesday morning.
A statement from the metro said only that a train derailed on the network’s blue line, without providing any details, the AFP news agency reported.
At least three people have been killed and over 80 injured in Moscow Metro crash (photo RIA Novosti)
There is no word as to the cause of the crash, in the west of the city.
The Moscow metro is one of the oldest and most extensive underground railway systems in the world.
Some of the most seriously injured passengers were taken to hospital by helicopter, Russian TV said.
The train derailed in a tunnel between stations.
News of the derailment was preceded by reports of smoke detected on the dark blue line of the Moscow Metro. Later, Moscow’s emergencies agency denied reports of smoke and said a sudden failure in the electricity supply to a conductor rail could have caused the accident.
Metro-North train that crashed on Sunday in New York City was going 82 mph in a 30 mph zone when it ran off the rails, investigators have said.
Four people were killed and more than 60 injured in New York’s Bronx borough.
The Metro-North train from Poughkeepsie to New York City crashed about 07:20 local time on a curve.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating whether a mechanical failure or human error caused the train’s high speed.
The train appeared to have been travelling over the speed limit even before it thundered into the curve where it crashed – the speed limit on the track approaching the curve is 70 mph, NTSB board member Earl Weener said on Monday.
He said the train had made nine stops prior to the derailment, and officials had not yet uncovered any brake problems.
Metro-North train that crashed in New York City was going 82 mph in a 30 mph zone when it ran off the rails
Earl Weener said preliminary data from the train’s event recorders indicated the train’s brakes became fully engaged just five seconds before the locomotive came to a complete stop after the crash.
In addition, he said the locomotive’s throttle went to idle six seconds before the train came to a stop.
Authorities continue to question the train’s engineer and three other crew members, and planned to transport the locomotive to a secure facility for further examination.
Officials were examining the engineer’s mobile phone – a standard procedure, Earl Weener said.
The engineer and assistant conductor were both injured in the crash.
Authorities also obtained surveillance video of the derailment from a nearby bridge, but the picture was of low quality, he added.
Officials have identified the deceased as Donna Smith, 54, James Lovell, 58, James Ferrari, 59, and Ahn Kisook, 35. Three of the dead were found outside the train, and one was found inside.
Of the 150 or so who were on board, 11 remain critically injured.
One man suffered a spinal cord injury that could leave him paralyzed from the neck down, a doctor told CNN.
[youtube EyGLu4K-ciI 650]
Authorities have begun an investigation into the causes of Sunday’s train crash in the Bronx area of New York City in which four people were killed and more than 60 injured.
The 05:54 from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station derailed as it went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station.
Reports say it was travelling faster than the speed limit in the area.
The train’s event recorder, similar to a flight recorder, has been recovered.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent investigators to the site with instructions to inspect the overturned cars and interpret information from the recorder.
The Federal Railroad Administration has also sent their own team of investigators.
Officials have identified the deceased as Donna Smith, 54, James Lovell, 58, James Ferrari, 59, and Ahn Kisook, 35. Three of the dead were found outside the train, and one was found inside.
NTSB board member Earl Weener said his teams would be on site for several days documenting evidence.
“Our mission is not just to understand what happened, but why it happened, with the intent of preventing it happening again,” he said.
On Monday, a second data recorder was found in the train’s rear locomotive. Earl Weener said investigators hoped to download information on the speed and settings of the train from that recorder.
The Metro-North train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station derailed as it went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station
Some 26,000 weekday riders on the railroad were warned to brace for crowded trains during the first morning commute after the derailment.
Train service south of Spuyten Duyvil is “suspended until further notice”, the train’s operator, Metro-North, said on Monday morning. Buses were being provided to the New York subway system.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said the bend where the derailment occurred was in a slow-speed area.
The train appeared to be going “a lot faster” than normal as it approached the bend coming into the station, passenger Frank Tatulli told WABC-TV.
The speed limit on the curve is 30 mph, compared with 70 mph in the area approaching it, Earl Weener said.
An official from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is quoted by the New York Times as saying that the train operator had reported that it was going into the turn too fast and that he had performed an emergency braking maneuver.
The operator told the first rescuers to reach the scene that he had “dumped” the brakes, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Dumping the brakes is said to be a last-resort move that has the effect of slamming on the emergency brakes on all the cars of a train at once. It is usually done to avert a collision with another train or a vehicle at a grade-level crossing, the New York Times reports.
A 2008 federal rail-safety law requires commuter and freight rail lines to install systems to prevent derailing caused by excessive speed, known as positive train control, by the end of 2015.
Metro-North is in the process of installing the technology.
A section of line between the Bronx and part of Westchester County could be closed for a week or more and New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo warned commuters to expect long delays.
Metro-North serves commuters from New York City’s northern suburbs. It is not part of the New York City subway system.
The accident was the second passenger train derailment this year for the rail service, which, until Sunday, had never experienced a passenger death in an accident in its 31-year history.
[youtube UUZaO2pLhBI 650]
At least four people have been killed and 63 injured in a passenger train crash in the Bronx area of New York City.
Eleven of the injured are believed to be in a critical condition in hospital.
The Metro-North train’s locomotive and carriages derailed as the train went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station.
At least one eyewitness said the train – the 05:54 from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station – was travelling much faster than normal at the time.
None of the carriages went into the adjacent Hudson or Harlem rivers – although pictures from the scene suggest this nearly happened.
The train appeared to be going “a lot faster” than normal as it approached the curve coming into the station, passenger Frank Tatulli told WABC-TV.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said the curve where the derailment occurred was in a slow speed area, and that the train’s black box recorder should be able to tell how fast the train was travelling.
The Metro-North train’s locomotive and carriages derailed as the train went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station
Joel Zaritsky was travelling on the train to attend a dental convention in New York City.
“I was asleep and I woke up when the car started rolling several times,” he told the Associated Press news agency.
“Then I saw the gravel coming at me, and I heard people screaming. There was smoke everywhere and debris. People were thrown to the other side of the train.”
Speaking to the media near the scene, New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed the casualty figures, adding that the authorities believed everyone at the site has been accounted for and that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was en route to the area to begin an investigation.
“It’s obviously a very tragic situation,” he said.
“The first order of business is to care for the people who were on the train… we’ll wait to see what the NTSB says before speculating as to any causes.”
Metro-North is a rail service that serves commuters from New York City’s northern suburbs. It is not part of the New York City subway system.
Sunday’s accident is the second passenger train derailment this year for the rail service.
[youtube zVayhbJL0Uk 650]
Two trains have collided in western Switzerland injuring at least 40 people have been injured, five of them seriously.
The crash happened in Granges-pres-Marnand in Vaud canton, about 30 miles south-west of the capital, Bern.
Reports say the regional trains collided head-on in the early evening.
Two trains have collided in western Switzerland injuring at least 40 people have been injured
The driver of one of the trains was still unaccounted for and thought to be inside the wreckage, police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said.
“These are regional trains. The speeds are a little lower and even if one deeply regrets the likely loss of life of one person as well as five serious injuries, the situation could have been much more catastrophic,” he said.
Jean-Christophe Sauterel said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash.
One of the injured was taken by helicopter to Lausanne. Others were treated at the scene by paramedics or taken to hospital by ambulance.
Earlier this month, 79 people were killed in a high-speed derailment in north-western Spain.
[youtube XNC_L2pmJWI]
The moment Spanish passenger train hurtled off the tracks and smashed into a wall, killing at least 80 people, has been captured in a terrifying video.
All eight carriages of the Madrid to Ferrol train derailed near the city of Santiago de Compostela last night, leaving at least 140 people injured.
Dramatic video footage from a security camera shows the train careering into a concrete wall as it came off the rails on the bend, before flipping onto its side and hurtling down the railway line with its terrified passengers on board.
One of the drivers was trapped in his cabin and told the railway station by radio that the train entered the bend at 190 km/h (120 mph), reported newspaper El Pais.
The speed limit on that section of track is 80km/h.
“We’re only human! We’re only human!” he told the station, the newspaper said, citing sources close to the investigation.
“I hope there are no dead, because this will fall on my conscience.”
The moment Spanish passenger train hurtled off the tracks and smashed into a wall, killing at least 80 people
Police have put an unnamed train driver under formal investigation – the Galicia government said one driver was in hospital.
Newspaper reports cited witnesses as saying driver Francisco Jose Garzon, who helped rescue victims, had shouted: “I’ve derailed! What do I do?” into a phone.
The accident is the worst train accident in 30 years and television footage showed one wagon pointing upwards into the air with one of its ends twisted and disfigured.
Another carriage that had been severed in two could be seen lying on a road near the track.
State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement that 218 passengers and an unspecified number of staff were on board at the time of the accident.
Renfe said the derailment happened at 8.41 p.m. local time on a high-speed section that was inaugurated two years ago.
After the crash, bodies were seen covered in blankets next to the tracks and rescue workers tried to get trapped people out of the train’s carriages, with smoke billowing from some of the wreckage.
Some passengers were pulled out of broken windows, and one man stood on a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window.
TVE showed footage of what appeared to be several bodies covered by blankets alongside the tracks next to the damaged train wagons and rescue workers entering toppled carriages through broken windows.
The crash happened about an hour before sunset after the train emerged from a tunnel and derailed on the curve – sending cars flying off the tracks.
As casualties were taken to hospitals in Santiago and two other cities in the region, authorities appealed for people to donate blood.
Neighbors responded to calls from the police to bring blankets and sheets to the scene along with bottles of water.
[youtube oH_IjAxDwLo]
At least 10 people are reported killed after a train has derailed near Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain.
Spanish railway company Renfe confirmed the train had come off the tracks near the city of Santiago de Compostela in the Galicia region.
At least 10 people are reported killed after a train has derailed near Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain
A Renfe spokesman told AFP news agency several people had been killed and several more injured.
Spanish news agency Efe quoted police and hospital sources as saying at least 50 people were injured.
Reports said all 13 carriages had left the tracks, and four carriages had overturned completely.
Images showed dozens of emergency workers crowded around ruined carriages.
Passengers were shown lying on the ground being treated.
Renfe said the train carried more than 200 passengers, and was on the high-speed route between Madrid and Ferrol on the Galician coast.
Canadian authorities have launched a criminal inquiry into the derailment of an oil train that killed at least 15 people in the small Quebec town of Lac Megantic on Saturday.
Quebec police inspector Michel Forget said investigators had found evidence leading them toward a criminal probe.
The runaway train derailed in the town of Lac-Megantic, exploding and destroying dozens of buildings.
Investigators are focusing on whether the brakes were released as it was parked in a town several miles away.
Inspector Michel Forget said investigators had ruled out terrorism as a motive for the attack but that several other options, including criminal negligence, remained under consideration.
He warned it could take time before the investigation findings emerge.
“This is an enormous task ahead of us,” the police inspector said.
“We’re not at the stage of arrests.”
In addition to the dead, as many as 35 others remain unaccounted for. Authorities have asked the relatives of the missing to provide DNA samples by bringing in toothbrushes, hairbrushes, razors and other items.
But the authorities have also warned some of the bodies may have been burnt to ashes in the explosion and may never be recovered.
On Wednesday, the chief executive of the train’s US owner, Rail World, was due to visit Lac-Megantic, where he could face a hostile reception.
Canadian authorities have launched a criminal inquiry into the Lac Megantic train derailment
In media interviews Edward Burkhardt said he thought he would have to wear a bullet-proof vest when he arrived in the town.
The train, carrying 72 cars of crude oil, was parked shortly before midnight on Friday in the town of Nantes about seven miles away.
An engineer apparently left the train with four of its five locomotives shut down, but kept the final one running to ensure the brakes were engaged.
Soon, a Nantes fire crew was summoned to put out a blaze on the train.
The train’s brakes appear to have failed soon after. It began moving downhill on the track in an 18-minute journey, gathering speed until it derailed in Lac-Megantic and exploded.
“The extent to which [the fire] played into the sequences of events is a focal point of our investigation,” Transportation Safety Board investigator Donald Ross said.
Nantes Fire Chief Patrick Lambert said that his crews had shut down the final locomotive while tackling the initial blaze.
He said this was the standard operating procedure agreed with the train company, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA), which is owned by Rail World.
“The people from MMA told us, <<That’s great – the train is secure, there’s no more fire, there’s nothing anymore, there’s no more danger>>,” the fire chief said.
“We were given our leave, and we left.”
But MMA says the decision to shut off the locomotive to put out the fire could have disabled the brakes.
At least 30 buildings were destroyed by the fireball that resulted from Saturday morning’s explosion, including a store and the public library.
But the entire town centre is being treated as a crime scene, with several additional streets cordoned off by police tape.
Some 200 officers were still conducting search operations on Wednesday morning. But police said the effort was taking a toll on some crewmen and two people had to be taken off the search over worries for their physical condition.
“This is a very risky environment,” said Quebec Provincial Police Sgt Benoit Richard.
“We have to secure the safety of those working there. We have some hotspots on the scene. There is some gas.”
Maude Verrault, a waitress at the Musi-Cafe, a nightspot razed by the blast, was outside smoking when she spotted the runaway train.
“I’ve never seen a train moving so fast in my life, and I saw flames,” she told the Associated Press news agency.
“Then someone screamed, <<the train is going to derail!>>. And that’s when I ran.”
The train was carrying oil from the Bakken oil region in the US state of North Dakota, taking it to a refinery on the east coast of Canada.
[youtube aPVRRgAtL4A]
