A head-on collision between two trains early Thursday morning in the suburbs of Santiago left two dead and nine injured, including four Chinese nationals, Chilean railway company Empresa de Ferrocarriles del Estado (EFE) announced.
The collision occurred between a train in the testing phase, without passengers, of the national company and a freight train of the Fepasa company.
“We regret to announce the death of two employees of the freight train,” EFE said in a statement, specifying that the two victims were the train driver and his assistant.
The collision also left nine people injured, including four Chinese nationals who were on board the EFE train to carry out speed tests. The train was manufactured by the Chinese consortium CRRC Sifang as part of a plan to revitalize rail transport in Chile.
All injured were taken to a local hospital. According to the police, one of them is in critical condition, while the vital prognosis of the others, including the Chinese nationals, is not threatened.
The two trains collided on the main railway line between Puente Maipo and Nos, in the town of San Bernardo, on the outskirts of Santiago.
“For unknown reasons”, the train in the testing phase “was not warned that the freight train was arriving towards the north”, explained prosecutor Pedro Aravena to local media.
The people who were on the EFE train “went towards the last car, and that is how they were able to avoid losing their lives,” he said. The driver of the freight train and his assistant, however, did not see the other train arriving and were hit head-on, he explained.
David Fernandez, director of Fepasa, assured that the freight train was authorized to run at that time and that the two victims were very experienced employees.
The driver of the EFE train and the person in charge of track control were arrested as part of the investigation into manslaughter and serious bodily harm.
In Chile, few trains run and train accidents are therefore rare. According to San Bernardo Mayor Christopher White, the last such accident in the area was in 1955.
“This is certainly an out of the ordinary situation, and has nothing to do with speed tests or anything else. Rather, it is a malfunction and we must determine the exact causes and take the necessary measures,” declared Transport Minister Juan Carlos Muñoz.
