Charles Newbery reported from Pinamar, Argentina, and Simon Romero from Rio de Janeiro.
Thứ Năm, 23 tháng 2, 2012
Argentina Train Crash Kills Dozens and Injures 600
The train, which runs from the ring of urban areas that surround greater Buenos Aires, crashed at about 8:30 a.m. at its final stop at the Once Station, not far from downtown Buenos Aires. The train was carrying more than 800 passengers and traveling at an estimated 16 miles per hour when it entered the station, slamming into the barrier of the platform, destroying the engine. “It is a very serious accident,” Juan Pablo Schiavi, the national secretary of transportation, said in his initial assessment of the crash during a televised press conference outside the Once Station. Mr. Schiavi said brake failure was the suspected cause. “The train hit the bumper,” Mr. Schiavi said, “causing one car to crumple into another.” He said one car pierced into another by nearly 20 feet. The injured were taken to hospitals in the vicinity, Dr. Alberto Crescenti, head of the state emergency medical system, said on Argentine television on Wednesday. He said around midday that about 30 people were trapped in the wreckage. Passengers told the local news media that the train, which is operated by the private company Trenes de Buenos Aires, was traveling faster than normal and had struggled to slow down when braking at stations ahead of Once Station. Trenes de Buenos Aires said in a statement that the reasons for the crash had not been determined, though the company acknowledged that the train “wasn’t able to stop.” Video footage of the crash taken by people at the scene showed people walking along the platform, with screams audible. People were pulling others out of the wreckage. “I saw a lot of people bleeding and some who were trapped,” said one survivor, a 23-year-old woman, quoted by the newspaper Clarín. Last September, a commuter train on the same line crashed into a passenger bus and hit a second train at the Flores Station, killing 11 and injuring more than 200. The bus had crossed the tracks when the barrier was down. In February 2011, four people were killed in a collision of two trains. The newspaper La Nación said the accident was the third-deadliest in Argentina’s history, surpassed only by a 1972 collision that killed 142 people and a 1978 accident involving trains and other vehicles that left 55 dead.
