“We are alive by a miracle”: nearly 60 injured, including two seriously, in a collision between two trains in Buenos Aires

Les causes de l'accident encore inconnues. MAXPPP – LUCIANO GONZALEZ

This Friday, May 10, 2024, two trains collided in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The current report does not report any deaths, but around sixty people have been injured, two of whom are currently in serious condition.

Nearly 60 people were injured, including two seriously, in the collision this Friday, May 10, 2024, of a commuter train in Buenos Aires with a maintenance train, opening a start of controversy on a "definancing" in public railways.

The two seriously injured, victims of head trauma, were evacuated by helicopter, the head of emergency services (SAME), Alberto Crescenti, told the press at the scene of the accident. One, with complications, underwent a successful neurosurgical procedure.

According to the public company Trenes Argentinos (TA), a passenger train of seven wagons collided with the maintenance train comprising a locomotive and an equipment wagon, on a railway viaduct from the Palermo district, shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time (1:30 p.m. GMT). Under the impact, "the locomotive and the first passenger car derailed", a TA press release said.

Aerial view of the collision between two trains in Buenos Aires. XinHua – Martin Zabala

The SAME initially mentioned 90 passengers taken care of on site, and 30 of them transferred, with injuries of varying severity, to various hospitals in the city immediately placed on alert.

But at the end of the day, an updated report from the Buenos Aires Ministry of Health reported a total of 57 people passing through a hospital, some of them on their own, after leaving the place of the hospital alone. ;#39;accident. "The majority have left", Mr. Crescenti said at the end of the day.

After the impact, emergency services and firefighters evacuated all the passengers in around forty minutes, the mayor of Buenos Aires, Jorge Macri, said at the accident site. ;"When we arrived there, people were shocked, but there were no screams, nothing", a declared to AFP on the spot Facundo Gomez, major of the Buenos Aires police.

The two seriously injured people, victims of head trauma, were evacuated by helicopter. XinHua – Martin Zabala

Aerial images show a wagon partly ripped open at its end, tilted against the metal railing of the viaduct passing over an avenue. Without it being clear whether it was a passenger wagon or the technical wagon.

The shock "was very strong. I heard the crash of the two cars colliding", a passenger in the last car said on the TN channel. " One person was thrown against the door, many people thrown to the ground".

"We are alive by a miracle!" s'said a passenger who, immediately after the impact, leaned out of the window to film the trains, images relayed by several televisions.

The cable theft hypothesis

"At the moment, there is not enough information on the causes" of the accident, underlined Mr. Macri. The Minister of Transport Franco Mogetta, for his part, mentioned "multiple hypotheses". Technicians and forensic experts were still on the tracks several hours after the accident.

The investigation is studying in particular whether there is "a question of signaling", both on the side of the technical train which worked on the track, and the passenger train, said Mr. Mogetta. He also mentioned complaints "of cable thefts" that the investigation will have to verify.

An accident which caused a lot of damage. XinHua – Martin Zabala

Thefts of copper cables or other metals have seen a sharp increase in recent months in Argentina, against a backdrop of economic deterioration, with inflation at 288% year-on-year, and 42% of poverty.

The leader of the train drivers' union La Fraternidad, Omar Maturano, suggested that the absence of cable, hence a communication problem, could be to blame. And he denounced a "definancing" of Trenes Argentinos.

"There are thefts of signal cables. Repairs are being requested, but there are no spare parts, for the signaling, or for the trains. We are told that there is no budget, he lamented.

After the impact, emergency services and firefighters evacuated all the passengers. MAXPPP – LUCIANO GONZALEZ

This "degradation of the company" suggests according to him the desire to lower its value, to attract the private sector with a view to a sale, or concessions. Trenes Argentinos is one of around ten state-owned companies earmarked by the ultraliberal government of Javier Milei for partial or total privatization.

"We are not for privatization, but not against concessions. Let private capital come, put the money into the infrastructure, so that the trains work as they should!", Mr. Maturano said on Radio 10.