Two trams collided in the tunnel under Strasbourg station on Saturday afternoon, an extremely rare accident which left several dozen injured.
Firefighters reported around fifty injuries, all minor, and around a hundred people unhurt.
The prosecution announced that it had opened an investigation into the charge of involuntary injuries, which aims to “determine the causes of the accident and highlight possible criminal responsibilities”.
“The first investigations made it possible to rule out the hypothesis of a voluntary act”specified the interim public prosecutor, Alexandre Chevrier.
A large security perimeter was established in front of the station, where numerous ambulances took up position. Injured people were evacuated on stretchers and others were taken care of under the station’s glass roof.
A video obtained by AFP shows badly damaged trains, the ends of the colliding trams heavily depressed, and passengers on the ground on the station platform.
“Collision brutal”
“What we know at this stage is that there was a brutal collision between two trams, on the platform, under the station”declared the environmentalist mayor Jeanne Barseghian, quickly present on site.
“It’s a frontal impact following a tram reversing, the causes of which I don’t know”she added.
The accident occurred shortly before 4:00 p.m.
“We don’t know why – human error, material problem, all that needs to be verified – (the tram) did not manage to stay stuck and therefore started to move backwards”detailed the president of the Strasbourg Transport Company (CTS), Patrick Maciejewski.
“Several days will be necessary to restore circulation” trams at this station, the CTS said in a press release.
“The tram backed up, the tram left at full speed towards the station, and all of a sudden, on the way back, on the way back to the station, we realized that there was already another tram which was returned to the station. That tram was at a stop, thank God.”testified Romaric Koumba, passenger on one of the damaged trains.
“When the tram collided with the other, the doors flew off”he added.
“Especially traumatology”
“We have around fifty relative emergencies with non-vital injuries, scalp wounds, one or two collarbone fractures, a sprained knee, things like that. Especially traumatology”explained Controller General René Cellier, director of the Bas-Rhin fire and rescue service.
“We don’t have an absolute emergency, it could have been much more serious”he further underlined.
“I was in the tram at the stop, there was a tram which came in reverse at full speed, there was a problem with the brakes and it rolled down the slope in reverse at Les Halles (the next stop , Editor’s note) to the central station. We heard a big big shock, a big boom”explained to the press Johan, a direct witness to the collision, who did not wish to give his last name.
“The accident occurred in the worst place on the network, in a tunnel, and in a very dense area since it is under the square in front of Strasbourg station”notes Julien Joly, transport consultant at Wavestone.
“The collision of two trams to my knowledge is rather rare, it happens very rarely”the expert further explains to AFP, according to whom most tram accidents are collisions with vehicles.
“But we can reassure users: it is a rather safe mode of transport because a tram travels at a maximum of 70 km/h in areas without obstacles. And in the city center the speed is limited to a maximum of 30 km/h in Strasbourg. So it remains a safe mode of transport”adds Mr. Joly.
Strasbourg is one of the first large French cities to have put a tram network back into service in 1994 and had already experienced an accident, in exactly the same place, at the end of October 1998. A tram had already collided with another in the tunnel under the station , an accident due to excessive speed of one of the two trains which left 17 injured.
cage-of-jus-bdx/pta/vk
