POLAND: A clean up operation begins to remove the wreckage of two trains, which collided head-on, from the tracks

Record ID: 382767

  • Title: POLAND: A clean up operation begins to remove the wreckage of two trains, which collided head-on, from the tracks
  • Date: 5th March 2012
  • Summary: SZCZEKOCINY, POLAND (MARCH 4, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) ZAWIERCIE FIRE BRIGADE SPOKESMAN, MAREK FIUTAK, SAYING: "We still can't confirm that the last body was taken out of the wreck, because the train is crushed so badly, that until we cut every piece of metal and check every bit of the carriage - then we will be able to say this was the last body." VARIOUS OF TRAIN CARRIAGE PULLED BY LOCOMOTIVE (SOUNDBITE) (Polish) ZAWIERCIE FIRE BRIGADE SPOKESPERSON, MAREK FIUTAK, SAYING: "The railway workers are now towing the wreckage to the side and we check every spot of the wreckage over and over again." VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTERS ON TOP OF VEHICLE CARRIAGE BEING TOWED FIRE FIGHTER ENTERING CARRIAGE FIRE FIGHTERS BESIDE CARRIAGE VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTERS CLEARING DEBRIS OFF TRACKS
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland, Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: Accidents,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA888GYOHPMH3CFE7YKX4WILXWG
  • Story Text: The death toll from Poland's worst rail crash in two decades rose to 16 on Sunday (March 4) as rescue workers searched the mangled wreckage of two express trains that collided head-on at high speed.
    Firefighters began removing the wreckage from the tracks near the town of Szczekociny in southern Poland. Nearly 60 of the estimated 350 passengers on board were injured.
    The battered locomotive of one of the trains had been forced upwards in the crash, most of the carriages had derailed and some were lying on their sides.
    Officials said they could not rule out finding more bodies as heavy machinery pulls the wreckage apart.
    More than 350 firefighters and other rescue workers struggled overnight to extract the victims from the twisted wreckage at a remote field crossed only by a pair of rail tracks.
    "We still can't confirm that the last body was taken out of the wreck, because the train is crushed so badly, that until we cut every piece of metal and check every bit of the carriage - then we will be able to say this was the last body," said Marek Fuitak, Zawiercie's fire brigade spokesman.
    "The railway workers are now towing the wreckage to the side and we check every spot of the wreckage over and over again," he added.
    Authorities were opening an investigation.
    The fate of the two drivers was not immediately known. Among the passengers were several Ukrainians along with French and Spanish citizens.
    One of the trains had been going from Warsaw to Krakow and the other from the city of Przemysl to the capital.
    The wreckage on one of Poland's most heavily used train routes was causing delays of up to three hours on Sunday.
    In 1990, 16 people were killed in a train crash in Warsaw.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register