ZAGREB, July 25 (Hina) - Croatian engine drivers' union on Tuesday reported that a grave accident was narrowly averted last Friday at the railway station of Kutina (some 50 kilometres east of Zagreb). To demonstrate possible
consequences of such an accident, the union compared the events in Kutina with the 1974 tragedy at the Zagreb central railway station which claimed about 150 lives. Last Friday, the train consisting of a few sleeping cars with 300 passengers aboard, and several carriages for the transport of personal cars "disintegrated into two halves" while entering the Kutina station at the speed of 100 kilometres per hour. This happened after the engine along with sleepers passed the points, and then the points moved, for still unexplained reasons, so that the second part of the train drove into another gauge. The accident was averted, because the emergency cords in both parts were au
ZAGREB, July 25 (Hina) - Croatian engine drivers' union on Tuesday
reported that a grave accident was narrowly averted last Friday at
the railway station of Kutina (some 50 kilometres east of Zagreb).
To demonstrate possible consequences of such an accident, the union
compared the events in Kutina with the 1974 tragedy at the Zagreb
central railway station which claimed about 150 lives.
Last Friday, the train consisting of a few sleeping cars with 300
passengers aboard, and several carriages for the transport of
personal cars "disintegrated into two halves" while entering the
Kutina station at the speed of 100 kilometres per hour. This
happened after the engine along with sleepers passed the points,
and then the points moved, for still unexplained reasons, so that
the second part of the train drove into another gauge.
The accident was averted, because the emergency cords in both parts
were automatically pulled. The rear, separated, part of the train
stopped just one metre before a train staying on that gauge, the
engine drivers' union explained.
Following this event, the union asks for resignation of the
responsible persons - the Croatian Railways Director-General
Dragutin Subat and Transport Minister Alojz Tusek.
The union claims that Tusek and Subat are trying to cover up that
undesirable event in Kutina as they needed four days to decide to
appoint a commission of inquiry which should probe into the causes
of the averted tragedy.
Croatian engine drivers are considering a possibility to reduce the
speed of all trains and through all railway stations, owing to a low
level of the security on the Croatian railway lines.
(hina) mm ms