TRAIN CRASH
Packed train ploughs into buffers, killing 49.
A packed commuter train ploughed into buffers at a Buenos Aires station during yesterday’s morning rush hour, killing at least 49 people and injuring more than 600 in Argentina’s worst rail crash in three decades.
Passengers said the force of the collision propelled the second train car inside the first carriage, trapping dozens of people in the wreckage alongside the busy platforms at Once station.
Officials said it was suspected faulty brakes caused the accident.
Witnesses said the train hurtled into the buffers.
‘‘I said, ‘ Be careful, the train isn’t braking’ ... I moved backward because I thought it was going to run me over,’’ said Alfredo Velazquez, 33, a shopping centre manager who was waiting on the platform.
‘‘There was a terrible explosion and a brutal impact,’’ he said.
Commuters inside the train ‘‘flew through the air’’, a passenger wearing a neck- brace, who identified himself as Fabio, told local television.
‘‘There were lots of people thrown to the floor, injured, bloodied,’’ he said.
‘‘The train [carriage] was embedded inside the other . . . the seats were gone, they disappeared, and people were jumping out the window.’’
A police captain said 49 people were killed, including a child.
Relatives and friends wandered around the station later in the day, trying to find news of missing loved ones.
Most of the victims were travelling in the first two carriages of the eight-carriage train, which Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi said was carrying between 1200 and 1500 passengers.
‘‘The train entered Once station at 26kmh . . . we suppose there was some flaw in the brakes,’’ he was quoted as saying by state news agency Telam. ‘‘The train folded up on itself.’’
The 28-year-old driver remained in intensive care and about 460 of the injured were being treated in hospital.
Yesterday’s crash is bound to fuel criticism of the country’s dilapidated and overcrowded rail services, which are run by private companies with hefty state subsidies and are prone to accidents and delays.
Argentina’s once-extensive rail network was largely dismantled during the privatisations of the 1990s.
‘‘This is the responsibility of a company that is known for insufficient maintenance and . . . improvisation,’’ said Edgardo Reinoso, a train workers’ union representative. ‘‘ On the other hand, there is also a lack of controls on the part of state entities.’’
The company holding the Sarmiento line concession, TBA, said it was investigating the cause of the accident.