Woman dies after falling onto subway tracks in Bucharest

The running of subway trains was disrupted for about an hour in Bucharest on Sunday, July 10, after a woman fell onto the tracks and was trapped under the train entering Victoriei station. Rescue teams were sent to the scene, but the woman died due to severe injuries. Metrorex, the company that operates the subway in Bucharest, called the incident “a possible suicide attempt.”

The incident occurred at Piata Victoriei 1 subway station at around 15:00 on Sunday. The station was closed and the traffic was stopped on the line as doctors and firefighters arrived at the scene and intervened to help the 59-year-old woman. Unfortunately, despite the doctors’ efforts to save her life, the woman was declared dead.

The subway train traffic returned to normal about an hour later, at 16:15. The authorities and Metrorex opened an investigation into the incident.

In related news, Metrorex announced that it is working on a plan to increase the safety of passengers using the Bucharest subway. The company kicked off a pilot project for installing suicide-prevention gates on platforms. According to Digi24, the first system will be installed at Berceni station, on the line to Pipera.

Numerous tragic incidents happened in Bucharest’s subway network over the years. In 2017, for example, a woman pushed another young woman onto the tracks just before the train entered the station. But there have also been suicides or suicide attempts - 23 in the last ten years, according to Stirileprotv.ro.

(Photo source:Iulian Dragomir/Dreamstime.com)