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Argentina train crash kills 11, injures 228

China.org.cn, September 14, 2011

• At least 11 people were killed and 228 others injured after two trains and a bus collided in a major crash in the heart of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, local emergency office said.

  Rescuers work at the site of an accident where a metro and a bus collided outside Buenos Aires Sept. 13, 2011. [Xinhua]

  The casualty numbers continued to increase as chaos prevailed until the afternoon at the site of the crash, Xinhua reported.

  At least 50 people were seriously injured after the first train ran into a bus at a crossing and was derailed. Later a second train coming from the opposite direction crashed into the train and bus stuck at the crossing, according to local police.

  The accident occurred at 6:30 local time (09:30 GMT) in Buenos Aires's upscale western neighborhood of Las Flores and involved two trains from the Sarmiento public railway.

  The bus has tried to cross the rails even though the barrier was down, said Gustavo Gago, spokesperson for the Buenos Aires Trains company (TBA), the main train company for rail operations connecting the western suburbs of Buenos Aires with the center of the capital.

  The driver of the bus was reported to have died in the crash. The conductor of one of the trains was freed after hours stuck in the wreckage but had one of his arms amputated at the hospital later.

  The accident caused traffic to collapse in large areas of the capital, which has suffered a number of train collisions during the years. In 1970, more than 200 people were killed in a similar crash in Buenos Aires, which was the worst one in Argentina's history.

   

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