The Hague, April 4 (BLAZETRENDS).- At least one person has died this morning and more than thirty have been injured in the derailment of an intercity train that was running between the Dutch cities of Leiden and The Hague, and which collided with material of construction crews working on the track overnight.
The deceased was an employee of the construction services company BAM, to which the crane involved in the collision also belonged, which took place around 03:25 local time (01:25 GMT).
According to the latest report from the regional security authorities, 19 of the injured were taken to the hospital, including the driver of the train, in which between fifty and sixty people were traveling.
The remaining eleven were treated at first in nearby homes.
Shortly after the accident, numerous emergency services attended the area of ​​the collision, including a trauma helicopter.
Equipos de emergencia en el lugar del accidente de un tren nocturno en Voorschoten, PaÃses Bajos, este 4 de abril BLAZETRENDS/EPA/Josh Walet
interrupted traffic
An intercity train heading from Leiden to The Hague and a freight train collided with a construction crane that was in the area due to works on two out-of-service tracks, according to John Voppen, chief executive of ProRail, the company that manages the railway infrastructure. Three carriages of the NS train derailed, two of which ended up in a meadow.
The damage to the railway infrastructure is “enormous”, said Voppen, who has already anticipated that train traffic between Leiden and The Hague will be stopped for days.
The Dutch Safety Board is also investigating how the accident occurred, whether the crane was allegedly on one of the tracks that was out of service for maintenance.
The first investigations suggest that the freight train first collided with the crane, causing it to leave the track it was on, and end up in the section where the passenger train heading from Leiden to The Hague with just over fifty people on board.
criminal investigation
The Dutch police have today opened a criminal investigation to determine the causes of the derailment, the most serious rail accident that has occurred in years in the country.
Different Dutch authorities underlined in a press conference the “uncertainty” that still exists about the causes of the incident.
The Dutch Minister for Transport and Public Works, Mark Harbers, spoke of “a terrible accident”, as did the Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, who pointed out that “unfortunately one person has died and many were injured in a terrible train accident Voorschoten” and added that his “thoughts are with the families and all the victims.”
The Royal House has also issued a statement in which it stresses that its “thoughts are with the victims of the train accident in Voorschoten and their families, many are now in fear and uncertainty.”