Around thirty people were hospitalized, two of them in serious condition, in the collision of a commuter train in Buenos Aires with a maintenance train, emergency services said.
The two seriously injured people, suffering from head trauma, were evacuated by helicopter, the head of emergency services (SAME), Alberto Crescenti, told the press on site. “There are no deaths,” stressed the mayor of Buenos Aires, Jorge Macri, alongside him.
The Trenes Argentinos company said in a statement that a seven-car passenger train collided with the maintenance train, including a locomotive and an equipment car, on a railway bridge in the Palermo district, shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time. (1:30 p.m. GMT). Under the impact, “the locomotive and the first passenger car derailed.”
According to SAME, 90 passengers were assessed and assisted on site, and thirty of them transferred to city hospitals with injuries of varying severity. Several dozen ambulances were dispatched to the scene of the accident.
The Minister of Transport, Franco Mogetta, for his part, reported 60 people injured in total, including around thirty who were slightly injured and did not require hospitalization.
The emergency services and firefighters carried out the evacuation of all the passengers in around forty minutes, underlined the mayor of Buenos Aires.
Aerial view of the train collision site in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 10, 2024 / STR / AFP
Many of them, unharmed in the wagons further away from the impact, were able to get off on their own and walk away along the tracks, Facundo Gomez, major of the police of the city, told AFP on the spot. Buenos Aires.
“When we arrived there, people were shocked, but there were no screams, nothing,” he added.
“Multiple hypotheses”
Rescue dogs ensured at the end of the morning that no passengers had remained prisoners.
“At the moment, there is not enough information on the causes of the accident,” Jorge Macri told journalists. Franco Mogetta, for his part, mentioned “multiple hypotheses”, none of which can be favored at this stage.
The investigation is examining in particular whether there is a “question of signaling”, both on the side of the technical train which was working on a track, and on the passenger train, he added. He also mentioned complaints of “cable theft” which the investigation will endeavor to verify.
Rescue workers at the site of the train collision in Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 10, 2024 / STR / AFP
Theft of copper cables or other metals has seen a sharp increase in recent months in Argentina, against a backdrop of economic deterioration, with inflation at 288% year-on-year, and poverty at 42% of the population at the end of 2023 .
Aerial images of the accident show a partially gutted wagon, tilted against the high metal railing of the railway bridge, which passes over an avenue. Without it being clear whether it was a passenger wagon or the technical wagon.
The train accident that occurred on a bridge spanning an avenue in Buenos Aires, May 10, 2024 / STR / AFP
The impact “was very strong. I heard the crash of the two cars colliding,” a passenger in the last car told the TN channel. “One person was thrown against the door, many people were thrown to the ground,” she said.
“We are alive by a miracle!” exclaimed a passenger who immediately after the impact leaned out of the window to film images of the train, images relayed by several televisions.
