All news

Engine driver dies in collision of passenger trains in Switzerland

40 people injured in train crash
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

GENEVA, July 30 (Itar-Tass) - An engine driver became the only victim of the collision of two passenger trains in Switzerland on Monday. The body of the engine driver was recovered from the twisted cabin of the train, the police of the canton Vaud reported on Tuesday.

The police reported that 40 people were injured in the train crash. The two trains were carrying 45 people, including two engine drivers.

The state of the five people injured as a result of head-on collision of passenger trains in Switzerland is serious, according to Pierre-Olivier Godard, a police spokesman of canton of Vaud, where on Monday 18:45 local time the accident occurred.

“In the collision of two local line trains 35 people have been injured slightly, 5 - heavily,” he said. The victims were rushed to a nearby hospital.

The Swiss railway company SBB told Itar-Tass that currently there is no information available on if there were any Russian citizens among the injured. The company’s spokesman also said that currently it is early to speak about the accident’s reasons, adding that probably the data will be available on Tuesday.

The investigation has been launched right after the accident occurred.

EPA/ITAR-TASS

 

Catastrophic trend: 3 accidents in three weeks

The train collision near Granges-Marnand in Switzerland became third in a sequence of major railway accidents.

On July 25, 2013, a train on the way from Madrid to Ferrol, Spain, jumped off the rails. The train set cracked up on a curve. The driver’s negligence was the main reason of the accident: during the inquiry he confessed that the speed was 190 km/h instead of the allowed 80 km/h.

The train driver faced accusation of involuntary manslaughter of 79 people.

Earlier, on July 12, a shuttle train ran off the rails on full speed in Essonne department south of Paris. 7 people were killed. According to the investigation results, the accident happened because of switch box failure.