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High-speed train crash in Italy
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 9:41 am
by shpalman
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... hern-italy
Happened near Lodi, just south of Milan.
It was travelling at about 180mph when it derailed... and struck another train in northern Italy, killing two railway workers* and injuring 27 people... two of the injured were in a serious condition and the other 25 were less seriously injured.
two of the injured were in a serious condition...
Considering we're talking about a train derailing at 180mph and hitting another train, "only" two dead and two seriously injured... could have been much worse.
* - possibly a mangled translation of
macchinista, this probably refers to train crew not people working on the track.
More news available
in Italian.
Re: High-speed train crash in Italy
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:19 am
by Martin Y
BBC is reporting there were only 28 passengers on the train which is presumably why casualty numbers are so mercifully low. Not entirely clear yet but it may only have been the engine and first carriage which derailed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51397027
Reuters says both the fatalities were drivers and no other victims have life threatening injuries.
Re: High-speed train crash in Italy
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:21 am
by jaap
shpalman wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 9:41 am
..., killing two railway workers* and injuring 27 people...
* - possibly a mangled translation of
macchinista, this probably refers to train crew not people working on the track.
In Dutch we use the work "machinist" only for the train driver, and it seems likely to be the same here.
Re: High-speed train crash in Italy
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:28 am
by shpalman
Martin Y wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:19 am
BBC is reporting there were only 28 passengers on the train which is presumably why casualty numbers are so mercifully low. Not entirely clear yet but it may only have been the engine and first carriage which derailed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51397027
Reuters says both the fatalities were drivers and no other victims have life threatening injuries.
Thanks, that's a more informative link.
Well it was the 05:10 train out of Milan, which explains why nobody was on it, but then the implication is that track maintenance may have been a factor and that's usually done overnight.
Re: High-speed train crash in Italy
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:19 am
by El Pollo Diablo
I've moved it to Weighty Matters.
Re: High-speed train crash in Italy
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 11:21 am
by El Pollo Diablo
The passenger train looks almost undamaged, whereas one of the freight carriages looks obliterated. Be interesting to see some detail of what happened.
ETA: Just shows how unrepresentative a photo can be, I guess
Video images showed ripped metal at the front of the first car, where the engine separated from the train. The first car was flipped on its side and appeared to be still attached to the rest of the train.
Re: High-speed train crash in Italy
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:56 pm
by shpalman
Five railway workers are being investigated over work they did hours before the derailment.
lo scambio dell’incidente era stato riparato dagli operai che avevano provato ad attivarlo più volte per testarlo. Non avendo ritenuto la riparazione sufficiente, però, avevano deciso di isolarlo dall’alimentazione. È la procedura standard, ma invece di lasciare il deviatoio in posizione normale, come poi indicato alla centrale operativa, sembrerebbe che gli operai lo abbiano lasciato deviato. Essendo stato isolato, l’anomalia non sarebbe stata rilevata correttamente dai sistemi di sicurezza, che altrimenti avrebbero rallentato il treno prima dell’incidente.
the turnout of the accident had been repaired by the workers who had tried to activate it several times to test it. Having not considered the repair sufficient, however, they had decided to isolate it from the power supply. This is the standard procedure, but instead of leaving the turnout in a normal position, as later indicated to the operations center, it would seem that the workers had left it diverted. Having been isolated, the anomaly would not have been correctly detected by the security systems, which otherwise would have slowed the train before the accident.
EPD can probably improve my (or rather, google's) translation. Basically they disconnected the points because they weren't working but left them in the wrong position, and the control system didn't know.