Just 2 days after the tragedy in Andalusia, in Spain there was a new train accident: a regional Catalan Rodalies train derailed near Frosty (Barcelona), after colliding with a retaining wall of the AP-7 highway, collapsed on the tracks probably due to heavy rain.
The accident occurred around 9.02pm yesterday, Tuesday 20 January: the train was traveling between Sant Sadurní d’Anoia and Gelida, in Catalonia, when it derailed at kilometer 64 of the Penedès line. The current budget is at least 41 injured, of which 5 seriously, while the train driver lost his life immediately after the collision. The impact, in fact, mainly affected the front of the trainwith the first carriage to suffer the most damage.
THE firefighterswho intervened immediately, took almost an hour to extract all the survivors.
There Rail traffic was interrupted throughout Cataloniathe second most populated region in Spain, as well as the country’s economic engine. Meanwhile, the Spanish train drivers’ union (SEMAF) has called a strike to protest against the “unacceptable deterioration of the railway lines” which has led to the deaths of three workers in less than 3 days.
According to what was reported by the authorities, the collapse of the wall it would have happened precisely because of the heavy rains that have hit Catalonia in the last few hours. The storm, in fact, would have caused other inconveniences to the railway line, with a second derailment occurred in Maçanet (near Girona, in northern Catalonia), fortunately without serious consequences for passengers: in this case, the accident was caused by a series of rocks falling onto the tracks, which caused the train to come off the rails, as visible in the images below.
Given the serious events of the last few days, Adifthe state company that manages Spain’s railway infrastructure, has adopted a measure to temporarily reduce to 160 km/h the speed of the trains that run on the AVE line that connects Madrid And Barcelona: several train drivers, among other things, had already reported the presence of several potholes along the tracks.
