accidents
Train accident in Holland: one dead – many injured
After the serious train accident near Voorschoten: rescue workers at the scene of the accident. photo
© Peter Dejong/AP
A hard bang shatters the silence of the night: two trains collide with a construction crane near The Hague. Panic breaks out. How did the train accident happen?
A devastating train accident has shocked the Netherlands. Two trains crash into a construction crane early Tuesday morning. One person is killed and around 30 are injured, some seriously. “It was a black day for the railways,” said the head of the rail network operator “ProRail”, John Voppen, in Voorschoten. King Willem-Alexander was also shocked by the extent of the devastation when he visited the scene of the accident.
It is unclear how the accident near the Dutch village of Voorschoten, about 15 kilometers from The Hague, could have happened. After hitting the crane, an Intercity with about 50 passengers derailed and crashed into a field. Investigations into the cause are in full swing, a police spokeswoman said. Not only experts from the security services examined the course of events, but also the public prosecutor’s office initiated investigations.
Maintenance work on a busy route
This much is clear: at the time of the accident, maintenance work was being carried out on the rails on this very busy route between Amsterdam and The Hague. The dead man was one of the construction workers.
“It was planned maintenance work,” said the head of “ProRail”. Work was being done on two of the four tracks, and no train was supposed to run on them. But the big question is: Where was the construction crane?
Traces of the devastation can be seen at the scene of the accident. The foremost part of the blue and yellow double-decker train lies across a field over a narrow canal. The cab of the train driver is totally crushed. The man was hospitalized with broken bones, according to the railway.
Residents of the Dutch village were awakened at around 3:25 a.m. They heard a loud bang, saw flashes of light, eyewitnesses said. “The house shook like an earthquake,” said a woman on the radio.
Then they saw chaos outside. The Intercity had derailed, two cars overturned. Passengers climbed out of the train, some screamed for help, many were injured. Local residents helped as best they could, taking people into their homes, offering first aid, something to drink and warmth.
Fear, Panic, Darkness
Most passengers were able to disembark the train themselves. “There was a heavy blow, windows shattered,” reported a student on the radio who was sitting in the upper part of the double-decker train. The wagon he was sitting in had tipped over. “Then I climbed down”. He was unharmed.
The student Anwar Akrouh described panic and fear on the TV channel NOS. “Everything was dark. You only saw sparks. I heard screams.” A video he made shortly after the train crash shows people panicking as they exit the train.
Ambulances, the fire brigade and also a trauma helicopter are on the spot very quickly. 19 passengers are taken to the surrounding hospitals, including a “disaster hospital” that was quickly set up at the Utrecht University Hospital about 60 kilometers from the scene of the accident.
In his first reaction, Prime Minister Mark Rutte spoke of a “terrible train accident”. “My thoughts are with the relatives and with all the victims. I wish them a lot of strength,” he wrote on Twitter.
The royal couple also expressed their condolences to those affected. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima expressed their condolences to the victims and their families. “Many are now feeling fear and insecurity. We feel very much for all of them.”