BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA—A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station Wednesday, killing 49 people and injuring hundreds of morning commuters in Argentina's worst train accident in decades.
Federal Police Commissioner Nestor Rodriguez says the dead include 48 adults and one child.
That makes it Argentina's worst train accident since Feb. 1, 1970, when 200 a train smashed into another at full speed in suburban Buenos Aires, killing 200 people.
At least 550 people were injured, and 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.
The commuter train came in too fast and hit the barrier at the end of the platform at about 26 km/h, 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.
The conductors' union chief, Omar Maturano, told Radio 10 that the train might have come in as fast as 30 km/h.
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.
“All of a sudden we felt an explosion and we literally flew through the air ... there were lots of people thrown to the floor, injured, bloodied,” a passenger wearing a neckbrace who identified himself as Fabio told local television.
“The train (car) was incrusted inside the other ... the seats were gone, they disappeared, and people were jumping out the window,” the young man said.
Many people suffered bruises, and many with lesser injuries were waiting for attention on the Once station's platforms as helicopters and more than a dozen ambulances took the most seriously injured to nearby hospitals.
There have been five serious train accidents in Argentina since December 2010; the most deadly of these happened last Sept. 13, when a bus driver crossed the tracks in front of an oncoming train, killing 11.
“This machine left the shop yesterday and the brakes worked well. From what we know, it braked without problems at previous stations. At this point I don't want to speculate about the causes,” Ruben Sobrero, train workers' union chief on the Sarmiento line, told Radio La Red.
The motorman has been hospitalized and the union hasn't been able to speak with him yet, Sobrero added.
Some 10 million passengers travel every month on the Sarmiento line, which links Buenos Aires to the city's western suburbs.
The country's dilapidated and overcrowded rail services, run by private companies and heavily subsidized by the state, are plagued by accidents and delays.
“This is the responsibility of a company that is known for insufficient maintenance and ... improvisation,” said Edgardo Reinoso, a train workers' trade union representative.
“On the other hand, there is also the lack of controls on the part of state organisms, including the National Commission for Transportation Regulation and the Transport Secretariat,” Reinoso told local radio.
The worst accidents in Argentine history include a 1970 crash that killed more than 230 people and another in 1978, in which about 55 died, local media said.
Argentina's once-extensive rail network was largely dismantled during the privatizations of the 1990s. President Cristina Fernandez has touted projects to revive train lines connecting Argentina to neighboring Uruguay and Chile.
Argentinian train derailment in pics:
Transportation Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi said the train entered the station at a speed of 20km/h) and failed to stop, crashing into a retaining wall at the end of the track.
At least 30 people were trapped in the twisted wreckage of the first and second cars of the train, said Alberto Crescenti, the head of the city's emergency services office, according to AFP.
"Inside the first car there was a human wall," said a firefighter who asked not to be identified.
The train's driver was carried away on a stretcher.
Argentinian train derailment in pics:
A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station, killing dozens and injuring hundreds, according to police.
- At least 49 dead, hundreds injured in Argentina crash
- Train smashed into end of station platform
- Windows exploded, cars separated, people thrown
A PACKED commuter train entering a Buenos Aires station at morning rush hour overnight smashed into a retaining wall, crumpling cars and leaving at least 49 dead, 600 injured and dozens trapped in the twisted wreckage.
Survivors described a full train - there reportedly were as many as 800 people aboard - and a tremendous impact, with passengers thrown on top of each other and hurled to the floor.
"Unfortunately, we must report that there are 49 dead in the accident," including a child, police spokesman Nestor Rodriguez said.
Civil defence officials said at least 600 people were hurt in the crash, including 200 with serious injuries.
Witnesses reported that it appeared the train's brakes failed as it pulled into the "Once" station on the western outskirts of Buenos Aires.
"It was a very serious accident," he said. "Cars piled up on top of each other and one of them went six metres inside another car."
"People suffered contusions, but there are much more complex cases involving traumas of the thorax. There are people trapped alive in the cars."
Firefighters and rescue workers had to break through skylights in the train cars' roofs to get inside as medical helicopters landed in the street.
"There were people who were crushed and shouting desperately. I saw bodies and blood all over the place," Alejandro Velazquez said.
"I felt the explosion of the crash. It was very loud. The train did not brake, I saw people hurt in their necks, arms, legs," AFP quoted passenger Pedro Fuentes as saying.
Another passenger, who identified herself as Myriam, said she was with her two children, ages six and four.
"In a blink of an eye we were on the floor. I don't know how we got out. The door crashed in on me, and I covered the girl."
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner suspended a news conference on the dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands following news of the crash.
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