A SERIOUS train accident in Spišská Nová Ves claimed three lives and caused several injuries on April 1.
The accident happened when a passenger train, which had stopped at the city’s railway station on its regular route from Poprad to Košice, was hit by an electric locomotive belonging to the Cargo company, the SITA newswire reported. The collision derailed the last carriage of the passenger train.
The cause of the accident is being investigated. According to unofficial reports, the brakes of the locomotive, which was on a trial run, may have failed. The fatalities all occurred in the locomotive, which was carrying six crew members. Two of the six jumped clear just before the collision, but three were killed and one was seriously injured. Fifteen people on the passenger train were injured, two of them seriously.
The seriously injured man from the locomotive, a 24-year-old, was transported to the Faculty Hospital of L. Pasteur in Košice suffering from complex fractures of his arms and legs. He was reported to be in a stable condition on April 6 and, according to hospital spokesperson Jaroslava Oravcová, as quoted by SITA, was expected to undergo surgery.
