Poland train collission

At Least 15 Dead in Poland Train Collision

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS,  March 3, 2012

WARSAW (AP) — Two trains collided head-on in southern Poland late Saturday, killing at least fifteen people and injuring about 50 in what appeared to be one of the worst rail disasters in the country in recent years, officials said.

Both trains were on the same track, traveling toward each other, Andrzej Pawlowski, a member of the board of the state railway company, PKP, said in an interview on the news station TVN24. He said one of the trains, which was traveling south, from Warsaw to Krakow, should not have been on the track. The other train, headed from the eastern city of Przemysl to Warsaw, was on the correct track, Mr. Pawlowski said.

It was not immediately clear how the Krakow-bound train ended up on the wrong track. Maintenance work was being carried out on one of the tracks where the collision occurred, in the small town of Szczekociny.

Polish television broadcast images of white and green train cars that were twisted and appeared to have been knocked off the tracks.

“Everything indicates that this is one of the most serious railway catastrophes of recent years in our country,” the transport minister, Slawomir Nowak, told TVN24 in a telephone interview. “There are people who have died; there are many injured people.”

Mr. Nowak spoke as he was traveling to the crash site with Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The state rail company, PKP, said eight people had been killed. Another 50 people were injured, 40 of them seriously, said Artur Borowicz, director of a local rescue service.

Dozens of rescue officials and helicopters were deployed to help those injured in the collision.