A fully occupied passenger train collided with a freight train in Pardubice, Czech Republic. The accident on Thursday evening left four dead and 23 injured, some seriously.
Numerous rescue workers such as firefighters, paramedics and doctors, as well as two rescue helicopters, rushed to the accident site, about 120 kilometers east of Prague. The locomotives of both trains collided head-on for reasons that are still unclear.
The night express train of the private railway company Regiojet was traveling from Prague to Kosice in Slovakia and had only been on the road for an hour when the accident occurred. According to the fire brigade, there were more than 300 passengers on board. Many Ukrainians use the connection via Slovakia to Chop in the far west of Ukraine to visit their home country. The uninjured passengers were taken by bus to emergency shelter.
In addition to Interior Minister Rakusan, Transport Minister Martin Kupka also immediately went to the scene of the accident.
According to media reports, the driver of the express train may have overlooked a stop signal or a switch may have been set incorrectly. “I thought to myself that the train was on the wrong track, even though there was a green signal,” an eyewitness told Pravo newspaper. “Suddenly there was a bang and the train stopped.” A passenger on the train, who was unhurt, said afterwards: “I felt a blow and heard glass breaking. Immediately afterwards I heard crying.”
The collision between the two trains could be heard from some distance. “The collision woke us up, my wife thought a house had collapsed nearby,” said a resident.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed his condolences to the relatives via the online platform X́ (formerly Twitter). “The collision of the two trains in Pardubice is a major accident,” he wrote. “We are all thinking of the victims and injured.”
Source: Krone
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