ARGENTINA: Argentine authorities confirm 49 dead in one of country's worst ever train accidents
Record ID:
382756
ARGENTINA: Argentine authorities confirm 49 dead in one of country's worst ever train accidents
- Title: ARGENTINA: Argentine authorities confirm 49 dead in one of country's worst ever train accidents
- Date: 23rd February 2012
- Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FEBRUARY 22, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF INJURED BEING AIRLIFTED PEOPLE FILMING
- Embargoed: 9th March 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Argentina, Argentina
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: Accidents,Transport
- Reuters ID: LVA3Y5EMH8UHIH12ZQM69S0YS2IL
- Story Text: A packed commuter train plowed into the buffers at a Buenos Aires station during Wednesday's morning rush hour, killing 49 people and injuring more than 550 in Argentina's worst railway accident in more than 30 years.
Scores of ambulances crowded the streets outside Buenos Aires' Once train station as the hundreds of injured were transported to hospitals.
The impact of the collision propelled the second train car into the first carriage, trapping dozens of people.
Police Chief Nestor Rodriguez said medical emergency officials had confirmed the staggering death toll.
"Right now we still have to get the bodies of the dead out. The director of Emergency Medical System (SAME) confirmed that there are 48 adults and one minor dead, 49," Rodriguez said.
Officials said faulty brakes were suspected of causing the accident.
Alberto Crescenti, the director of SAME, said medical personnel treating a long list of injuries in area hospitals.
"Amputations, various traumas, arrested breathing and heart beat, various traumas in the thorax region, everything you can imagine from a collision like this," he said.
More than 800 people were aboard the train, state news agency Telam reported.
Some 10 million passengers travel every month on the notoriously crowded Sarmiento line.
The country's dilapidated and overcrowded rail services, run by private companies and heavily subsidized by the state, are plagued by accidents and delays. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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