Argentina Train Crash Leaves Dozens Dead, Hundreds Injured
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JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images(BUENOS AIRES, Argentina) — At least 49 people were killed and another 600 injured when a packed commuter train crashed into a retaining wall at the terminal in Argentina’s capital city at the height of rush hour Wednesday morning.
The crash at the Once train station in Buenos Aires happened around 8:30 a.m. local time when the train, carrying approximately 1,200 passengers, reportedly had braking problems and crashed into a barrier. The train is said to have been traveling from anywhere between 12 to 20 miles per hour at the time of the accident.
“There are people still trapped, people alive,” Argentina’s transportation secretary J.P. Schiavi told reporters Wednesday, according to the BBC.
The first two cars — and the passengers in them — took the brunt of the crash. Traditionally, commuters pack the first few cars and move up as the train approaches its final stop, so as to get a head start in exiting the approaching station.
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