Checks carried out on electric wagons and rail lines after fatal crash
The manufacturer of the electric wagon involved in last week’s railway crossing accident in Oss, in which four children died, is to carry out safety checks on all 3,500 of its vehicles that are currently in use.
Schools and nurseries that use the Stint, an electric-powered vehicle with a large tub at the front designed to travel on cycle paths, have been given checklists so they can check their own wagons. The manufacturers will begin inspecting the vehicles and carrying out preventive repairs this week.
Separate checks are being carried out on the railway line to see if the electromagnetic currents interfered with the Stint’s mechanism. Other users told the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) that they had had problems with the vehicles near rail lines, RTL Nieuws reported. ‘We want to eliminate all options,’ said ILT spokesman Frank Wassenaar.
The wagon was struck by a train on a level crossing in the Noord-Brabant town last Thursday morning. Eyewitnesses said the driver shouted out moments before the collision that the brakes had failed, but the manufacturer is still investigating the cause.
Two of the children who died in the crash were sisters, while a third sibling, an 11-year-old girl, was seriously injured. She and the 32-year-old woman who was steering the wagon remain in hospital. The children who died were aged between 4 and 8.
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