Austrian trains in head-on crash in Vienna - 21 January 2013

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

A video news report, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Footage shows the aftermath of the rush hour crash in Vienna

Dozens of people have been injured in a head-on collision between two commuter trains in the Austrian capital Vienna.

Two people, including one of the train drivers and a passenger, remain in critical condition. Thirty-nine others were injured, three of them seriously, but no deaths were reported by Monday afternoon.

The accident occurred in Monday's morning rush hour, when the two trains found themselves heading towards each other on the same track. The line, in the Penzing district of western Vienna, had been put under manual control following a technical defect, a spokeswoman for Austrian railways said. "A train got permission to travel when it should not have," she said.

Emergency fire and ambulance crews had to cut people out of the wreckage. The train cabs were crumpled. It took almost two hours to evacuate both trains.

"Of course we will investigate the causes for the collision but at the moment our priority is with the passengers," Austrian Railways spokeswoman Sarah Nettel told the AFP news agency.

[stebbo]

And I believe there was a similar pile up in, wait for it, Switzerland last week