Human error probable cause of Montenegrin train wreck (Roundup)
By DPA
Jan 24, 2006, 19:00 GMT
Podgorica/Belgrade - Human error was probably the cause of a serious train
crash in Montenegro that killed some 45 people and injured more than 200,
despite initial reports that faulty brakes were to blame, Montenegrin railway
officials said Tuesday.
\'The engineer and his assistants most probably did not fully follow the
necessary procedure,\' a railway representative said.
A probe was launched Tuesday after a delay caused by rescue efforts. Examining
magistrate Zoran Radovic questioned the engineer, Slobodan Drobnjak, who
survived but was injured in the accident.
The derailed train had been serviced in 2005 in a factory in Zrenjanin in
Serbia and is still under guarantee, the factory\'s general manager, Dragan
Jevtovic, told the Belgrade media.
Montenegro was in mourning Tuesday as the death toll in the country\'s
worst-ever train disaster climbed to 45, including five children.
More than 200 people, among them 105 children, were injured Monday afternoon
when four cars of a passenger train derailed on a steep descent 20 kilometres
east of the capital Podgorica and plunged 50 metres into a river canyon.
The cars were part of a train travelling from the northern city of Bijelo Polje
to the coastal town of Bar. The large number of children was attributed to the
end of a three-week vacation, many of them returning from Kolasin ski resort.
Rescue efforts, hampered by freezing temperatures and strong winds, were
temporarily halted early Tuesday morning amid fears that more bodies might be
trapped under the wreckage, but continued later in the day.
Some 14 of the injured passengers were still in critical condition in Podgorica
hospital, the Podgorica daily Vijesti said.
Vijesti reported that Montenegrin police were aware that the train was in
trouble before the accident occurred. All vehicles were ordered off the tracks
about 20 minutes before the train derailed, around 4 p.m. (1500 GMT).
Survivors recounted the horror of the last minutes of their journey when they
realized the train was in trouble.
\'The conductors told us that we had lost the brakes and people started
screaming, hugging, grabbing the seats and lying down, while the train sharply
accelerated,\' Radomir Mijatovic, 17, told Vijesti.
\'Bags and luggage started falling all over us and then the train lunged into
the abyss,\' said Mijatovic, who was flung out of the train but escaped with
minor injuries.
Among the survivors was a pregnant woman, who went into contractions and gave
birth to a healthy baby immediately after the crash, a doctor at the Podgorica
children\'s clinic told reporters Tuesday.
The rescue effort in rugged terrain, in temperatures of minus 13 degrees
Celsius and high winds, involved hundreds of police, soldiers, volunteers and
paramedics.
Shocked Montenegrins rushed to hospitals to donate blood, while crowds of
people anxiously awaited information on family members.
Montenegro declared an official three-day mourning period. Both Montenegro\'s
sister-republic Serbia and the neighbouring Croatia immediately offered
assistance.
Governments both in Podgorica and Belgrade held more emergency sessions on
Tuesday, and Serbia has also declared three-day mourning period.
The railway stretch where the accident occurred had been recently rebuilt, but
Monday\'s accident was the second to occur on it in a year. Last February, an
avalanche tore a locomotive off the tracks and flung it into the canyon.
One engineer was killed in that accident, while his assistant managed to rescue
himself by jumping out in time.
More than 100 of the 466 kilometres of track between Belgrade and Bar,
completed three decades ago, runs through rugged Montenegrin mountains. Many of
the 254 tunnels and 234 bridges are located on that segment of the railroad.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Serbian News Network - SNN
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