ARGENTINA: Argentina mourns, lashes out as investigation into deadly train crash continues.

Record ID: 382753

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Argentina mourns, lashes out as investigation into deadly train crash continues.
  • Date: 24th February 2012
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FEBRUARY 23, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LOOKING AT LIST OF INJURED AT LOCAL HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina, Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Accidents,Technology,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVACDFH6AUPUP6N5GA0XMES364MR
  • Story Text: Buenos Aires vacillated between sadness and anger on Thursday (February 23) a day after a commuter train crashed into a station, killing at least 50 people and injuring over 700.
    The accident occurred during morning rush hour on the notoriously overcrowded Sarmiento line, which services the city's western suburbs.
    Black cloth covered the platform where the accident occurred and police guarded the area. Reduced train service continued on a parallel track as Argentine authorities review video from security cameras to get clues about the cause of the crash.
    Initial reports said the brakes likely went out, but officials said yesterday the train appeared to be breaking properly until it up 40 metres (131 feet) from the buffers it slammed into at the end of the line.
    Meanwhile, Argentines mourned and lashed out against Trenes de Buenos Aires (TBA), the company holding the Sarmiento line concession.
    Roque Cirigliano, a member of the family that runs TBA, had to be escorted from the station by police after he went look at the crash.
    "(Journalist saying: If you had to rate the service provided by the company that your family exploits commercially, how would you rate it, good, normal, or bad?) The service is acceptable. I think in some aspects (Journalists saying: What is acceptable for you?) I think in some aspects we've had more investments than other companies. (Journalist saying: Fifty dead is acceptable?) No no. That's something different. You were asking me about the service," he said before hustling out of the station.
    Some 10 million passengers travel every month on the Sarmiento line. It was the scene of another crash in September, when two commuter trains smashed into a city bus, killing 11 people.
    Local newspapers trumpeted the news of the tragedy, blaming the overcrowded and dilapidated rail system for the accident.
    The normally packed trains had empty seats, while many people were still looking for family members who were on the train.
    One woman, who gave her name as Estela, said she had looked everywhere for her husband, Alberto Garcia.
    "We are looking everywhere for him. He's not in the morgue, thank God. He's not in the morgue. All the hospitals say he's not there. And then they say they don't have John Does. If there aren't any John Does, where are all these people who disappeared, like my husband?" she said.
    The 28-year-old train driver remained in intensive care and about 460 of the injured were still being treated in local hospitals.
    The worst train 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.
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