Argentina Commuter Train
A BUENOS AIRES-BOUND COMMUTER TRAIN lost its brakes Wednesday morning and coasted at a relatively low speed into the platform at a downtown station. CBS News shared this security video showing the train coming into the depot and crashing:
The latest count has 49 people dead, but rescuers say that the number will probably rise. More than 600 people were injured and many of them had to be rescued from the cars.
Reuters photo of the locomotive at the barrier.
The train was packed with commuters and the impact collapsed the lead cars sending all passengers tumbling.
The Associated Press reported:
Emergency workers were slowly extracting dozens of people who were trapped inside the first car, said Alberto Crescenti, the city's emergency medical director. Rescuers carved open the roof and set up a pulley system to ease them out one by one.
AP
The commuter train came in too fast and hit the barrier at the end of the platform at about (15 mph), smashing the front of the engine and crunching the leading cars behind it; one car penetrated nearly six metres into the next, Argentina's transportation secretary, J.P. Schiavi told reporters at the station.
Most damaged was the first car, where passengers make space for bicycles. Survivors told the TeleNoticias channel that many people were injured in a jumble of metal and glass.
Passengers said windows exploded as the tops of train cars separated from their floors. The trains are usually packed with people standing between the seats, and many were thrown into each other and to the floor by the force of the hard stop.
Passengers told of chaos and panic as the impact of the collision propelled the second train car into the first carriage, trapping dozens of people as others looked on from the busy platforms at the central Once station.
Scores of firefighters and ambulances along with medical helicopters responded to the scene and were faced with hundreds of dead and injured with a near-panic situation in the train.
AP
The 8-car train had about 1,200 passengers on board, all packed tightly in the cars, literally jammed against one another. The train's brakes had begun failing earlier as evidenced by it overshooting several platforms at stations leading to the terminal. They finally quit completely near the end of the run and the train coasted right through one station without stopping and then crashed into the barrier at the main terminal.
CBS News has a more complete article on the train's braking problems and discusses the lack of modern equipment in the Argentine railway system HERE.
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