About 190 people were injured in a train accident that took place Thursday morning in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while there are three confirmed dead, according to the Argentinean newspaper Página 12.
The accident happened in the train line called Sarmiento, a few meters away from Castelar station, several minutes after 7 a.m. A stopped train was rammed from behind by another train that was circulating in the same direction and full of passengers.
While it is still unclear what caused the accident, different delegates from the rail union reported that the train which rammed the other one had brake problems. "The accident is noteworthy because it's a train that collided with another one from the back on a straight", said the union leader Ruben Sobrero in statements published by Página 12. "It always had problems. We had been reporting this for some time", he added.
However, the Operational Management Unit of Mitre and Sarmiento lines denied the union's accusations that blamed a brake failure. In a press release, the concessionaire said that "carriages are circulating since March 11, 2013, with a total renovation of the brake system". In addition, according to the statements, satellite monitoring of trains shows that the train stopped normally at the previous station.
According to the licensee, before the accident the train crossed a "Caution" signal, which forces trains to slow down, and three "Danger" signals, that indicate that the driver must completely stop. The company also confirmed that both trains "were with passengers and in service".
The Minister of Interior and Transport of Argentina, Florencio Randazzo, announced that the service of Sarmiento line will be stopped for 24 hours, "so that justice can investigate with complete calm in order to know what really happened", according to statements published by Página 12.
This accident has many similarities to another one that took place in February 2012, also in Buenos Aires. At that time, a train that was arriving at the Once de Septiembre station collided with the containment bumper systems, leaving 51 dead and over 700 injured.
This group of videos show different images of the site of the tragedy, as well as testimonies from witnesses and passengers of the train. The images correspond to channels TV Pública Canal 7 and Crónica Televisión of Argentina and to the news network CNN en Español.
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