Driver killed in three-train crash

Friday 25 September 2009

One man was killed when the goods train he was driving crashed into a second goods train near Rotterdam at around 10.30 on Thursday evening.

The collision caused both trains to leave the track and hit the underside of a viaduct on the A15 motorway, Nos tv reported.

An international train carrying 150 people to Brussels was forced to make an emergency stop to avoid piling into the goods trains and a number of passengers were slightly injured. They were treated at the scene.

Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the safety research council, said it was a very serious accident but the quick-thinking of the passenger train driver had prevented it from being much worse.

According to the Volkskrant, a second passenger train was also hit by flying debris.

Reports that one of the goods trains had been carrying dangerous chemicals were later said not to be true by fire officers.

The A15 was closed for a time as accident investigators began trying to piece events together but has since reopened. The railway remains closed and train users heading south from Rotterdam are being recommended to travel via Utrecht.

For photographs of the accident, click here

© DutchNews.nl

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