Two trains colided and another derailed in Coimbra, Portugal

[Giugiaro]

The night of 21rst of January is not going well on the Portuguese railways.

Near Coimbra, in Alfarelos station, an Intercity train collided against a stopped Regional EMU train, at around 9:15PM, resulting in 21 confirmed casualties.

The INEM, Proteção Civil and firemen mobilized 41 vehicles and an helicopther to the site. The Regional train, formed by two EMU CP 2240, was carrying only 5 passengers and its crew, while the Intercity train, had the first car full of passengers. Both trains were headed north, the IC to Oporto, the R to Coimbra.

For now, the information provided says that the Regional was to be overtaken by the Intercity in this station and that the CONVEL (CONtrolo de VELocidade or Speed Controler, the portuguese ATC/AWS) didn't acted in order to stop the train, which means that either the signals failed to give the correct information, or the junction failed to turn.

It is yet to be confirmed if this accident was caused by the alleged robbery of copper wire, a phenomenon starting to be common in the portuguese railways, causing a probable faulty junction in a non-modernised section of the Linha do Norte (Portuguese for Northern Line, that connects Lisbon to Oporto). The bad weather conditions in the last days in Portugal may have helped reducing substantially the grip, making it difficult for the Intercity train to decrease more its speed.

Because of the amount of damage caused to the overhead wire and rails, the service will be highly affected during tomorrow. The first car of the EMU was completely destroyed and the next two derailed. The Intercity electric locomotive was still on rails, but the cab and pantograph were damaged.

Witnesses at the station said that "this is a junctioned station" and that "it was taking too long for the junction to turn". Passengers being taken to the hospital said that "the (Intercity) train did reduced speed, but it didn't brake as it should be expected". Another said "I could only see wreckage and wounded people".


The next images where provided by TVI:

Yet, later in this night, another accident happened near Coimbra, in Torre de Vilela, causing the train to derail.

A car was being pursued by the police after being involved in a robbery scene and ended being struck by another EMU headed south, to Coimbra, on a railway crossing. The train ended up derailing, while the suspect managed to get off the car, leaving the place without leaving trace, presumably not injured.


This is Tiago Miranda, correspondent of RailUK Forums in Portugal, with information based in RTP, TVI and As Beiras Online.

 

[LexyBoy]

Blimey, that looks horrendous - good to hear no-one was killed, this must have only been because the regional train was nearly empty. It will be interesting to hear the cause of the accident. Does the "non modernised" section you refer to have signalling which does not default to danger if there's any sort of problem?

Another picture here.

 

[Lewisham2221]

Absolutely amazed that there were no deaths. Looking at the state of those carriages, I can only assume the low number of casualties is down to low passenger numbers, if both trains had been well loaded I'm sure this would have been much, much worse.

 

[Giugiaro]

Good Evening!

The Regional had only one EMU in service, the other on the back, which took all the damage, was out of service and was suppose to start its duty today.

Since the Electric Locomotive was a lot sturdy, all passenger cars behind remained untouched. The driver is safe and already left the Hospital. She run to the other side of the locomotive when she pushed the Emergency Brake.

When the signalisation fails, the CONVEL brings all trains to a stop. I guess that the CONVEL is able to know where to expect the next balise. It also doesn't let a train pass through an yellow or even a red at high speed, reducing it's speed at Max Service before reaching the signal or speed limit.

Somehow, the CONVEL was tricked, and the train didn't turn at the right point. It's just a question of time before the real facts come from the report.



About the other accident, the man that was fleeing from the police was found taking fuel from a local industry, with a robbed Nissan car. I'm yet to understand if the man was caught by the train and, after that, fleeing, or he purposely left the car in the level crossing when it was closed, fleeing when the car was being hi by the EMU.

From this night, a total of 2 EMU CP 2240 were damaged, 1 EMU CP 2240 was wrecked and a Electric Locomotive CP 5600 was heavily damage and had its structure bent.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Here's a 360º view of the accident site: http://www.dn.pt/DNMultimedia/Portugal/Acidente_Alfarelos/1.html
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
This morning, the railway crane that was helping removing the wreckage from this Monday accident in Alfarelos fell down, delaying even more the operation.

The railway crane that was sent from Entroncamento fell today while working in the cleaning of the accident site. The authorities are trying to find an alternative solution to keep up the work in order to reopen services between Entroncamento and Coimbra, which are being held by buses temporarily.

From REFER, it is said that "where making plans to find another solution, but there are a lot of setbacks placed, mainly the bad weather."


It is still unknown the official facts that may have caused this accident, mainly the fact that the CONVEL didn't react as it was supposed to.

The station, in modernisation process, still works locally by a control desk and mechanical communication, which means that this zone of the Northern Line (Linha do Norte) isn't visible and controlable electronicaly on the main control panels in Lisbon, known as CCO (Centro de Controlo Operacional) in Portugal.

 

[185]

Good photo that, albeit of a horrific scene.