Locomotive crashes into stationary train in Romania, killing conductor
A locomotive crashed into a stationary train at high speed in the Romanian town of Galati on Saturday, March 25. The train conductor, a woman, has died, and three other people were injured.
"CFR Calatori regrets to announce that the conductor of train R 7576 has died in the hospital following the railway accident that occurred this evening at the Galati station. [The woman was] initially stabilized on the platform and on route to the hospital on the ambulance service that arrived at the scene, but a new cardiac arrest that occurred at the hospital proved fatal," CFR reports.
Preliminary investigations by the police in Galati have shown that the needle on the locomotive's speedometer was stuck at 75 km/h. The engineer, who has 15 years of experience operating passenger trains, stated that the locomotive suddenly accelerated and that he attempted to use the braking system without success.
At the time of the accident, the passenger car was occupied by three people, including the conductor and a passenger. The locomotive engineer and the three people on the train all suffered injuries, with the passenger trapped in the resulting wreckage. The train conductor entered cardiac arrest. After being extricated by the Galati Emergency Situations Inspectorate and receiving first aid, all four victims were transported to the "St. Apostol Andrei" Emergency Clinical Hospital in Galati. Due to the injuries sustained, the woman passed away.
CFR Calatori union leader, Rodrigo Maxim, told Digi24 that the accident was caused by the poor funding of the railway transport system.
"The locomotives are old, with many problems," said the union boss, referring to malfunctions with the graduator, the system that controls speed on the locomotive. "The graduator simply sped up and the engineer was not able to control it. It was a technical malfunction," he added.
Minister of transport Sorin Grindeanu said that “considering that it is the second railway accident that occurred in a very short time, I have decided the following: to ask CFR Calatori to immediately initiate a technical inspection of the rolling stock in use; moreover, following the incident in Teleorman, I ordered the reassessment of all locomotive engineers starting in April."
The former minister of transport, now leader of the reformist opposition party USR, Catalin Drula, called for his successor's resignation.
Earlier this month, a passenger train rammed into the last wagon of a freight train in the Rosiori Nord station in southern Romania. At least ten people needed medical care, and four of them were transported to the hospital. Moreover, the last three wagons of the freight train, which was reportedly transporting Ford cars, derailed due to the collision.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos / Ovidiu Iordachi)
