Mexico leader vows justice
Probe into collapsed metro will ensure ‘no impunity for anyone’
MEXICO CITY: Mexico will punish those responsible for an overpass collapse that killed at least 24 people and injured dozens when a train on Mexico City’s newest metro line plunged onto a busy road below, the government said.
Accompanied by officials involved in the construction and maintenance of the elevated metro line that collapsed on Monday night, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday that the investigation should be done quickly and that nothing should be hidden from the public.
“A thorough investigation will be carried out... to know the truth,” Obrador said at a news conference, adding that independent international experts would assist prosecutors in the probe.
“We cannot get into speculation, much less blame the possible perpetrators without having proof,” added the president, who has declared three days of national mourning.
“There’s no impunity for anyone,” he added.
The city has been governed since the turn of the century by former mayor Lopez Obrador and his allies.
The crash has raised wider questions about safety on one of the world’s busiest metro systems, which carries millions of people daily across the capital’s urban sprawl.
Firefighters using heavy chains to stabilise the site pulled bodies and survivors from the wreckage before lowering one dangling carriage onto a truck in the afternoon. Some 79 people were injured, including three children, authorities said.
Video on social media showed the moment when the overpass suddenly plummeted onto a stream of cars near the Olivos station in the southeast of the city at around 10.30pm on Monday, sending up clouds of dust and sparks.
Monserrat, 26, said she was at the back of the train wagon when she heard a loud noise and the lights went out.
“Everybody screamed and we fell on top of each other,” she told Mexican radio.
Angelica Cruz Camino, 31, said she had not heard from her husband since he was on his way home from work. She visited several hospitals and was told all victims were identified, but she still had not found him by Tuesday afternoon. “I called and called but he wasn’t answering me. Then it was my son who realised the metro collapsed,” she said outside Tlahuac public hospital. “I cannot find my husband.”
The overpass that collapsed was part of Linea 12, an addition to the network finished less than a decade ago and long plagued by claims of corruption and structural weakness.
In 2014, just two years after it opened, several of the line’s stations were closed for structural repairs.
Four people who live in the area said they observed the support structures below the elevated tracks visibly shaking when trains crossed. Some recalled warnings about the humid soil being unfit for major construction.
After a powerful 2017 earthquake, government data showed that there was also damage to the line’s support columns.
“Every time I saw the train, I saw the columns and beams shake,” said Victor Lara, a daily commuter on the line. “They’re not well made.”
Investigations will be carried out by the federal attorney general’s office, its Mexico City counterpart and an external auditor, Norway’s DNV GL, officials said.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the accident.