Twenty people died and dozens were injured on Tuesday when two passenger trains collided at high speed in southern Italy. Photo: AP Rescuers work after a head-on collision between two trains, near Corato, in the southern Italian region of Puglia.
Advertisement
ROME (AP) – Delayed rail improvements and the antiquated telephone alert system will be considered as part of the investigation into the violent head-on train crash in southern Italy that killed almost two dozen people, officials said Wednesday.
Police said the accident happened on a single stretch of track between the towns of Corato and Andria at 11.30am local time.
Railway police Commander Giancarlo Conticchio earlier told Sky TG24 said that the number of dead was 22 with 43 people injured, adding that the numbers could change.
“It looks like there has been a plane crash”, said the mayor of Corato, Mr Massimo Mazzilli. “We won’t stop until we clarify what happened”, Renzi told journalists. The exact cause of the crash has not been established yet, but the possibility for human error among has not been excluded. “Ms. Gnesi said that the trains were probably operating on instructions from dispatchers”. Local authorities have appealed for people to give blood.
Some have also pointed to the fact that the section of the single track isn’t automated – trains still needs to get approval to move ahead by telephone, according to ANSA.
At least 20 people have been killed.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi pledged a thorough investigation and returned to Rome from Milan to monitor the situation. “Unfortunately in this country the rail (network) has never been cared for (and) over five million people commute to work and study on regional lines”, Delrio continued. One woman told local television channel Telesveva in an interview about seeing dead bodies all over the ground as she pulled her husband from the debris.
The collision happened on a bend in the track in open countryside and flung the front carriages of both trains into olive groves bordering the line, slinging bits of metal from the wreckage.
The last major rail accident left 29 dead in 2009 after a train carrying gas derailed, sparking an explosion.
“Only five of the victims had identity documents on their person, the rest presumably in wallets or bags sent flying across carriages on impact, making it more hard for authorities to name the dead”, La Stampa said.
Numerous passengers on one of the trains were students heading to lessons at the University of Bari or travellers on their way to Bari global airport. More than 30 people living close to the tracks died in the subsequent fire.
Advertisement
He said Granziano Del Rio, Italy’s minister for infrastructure and transport, is heading to the crash site with the head of civil protection.
