A large-scale railway accident. Photo: Serhii Ponkratov, head of the Kotelnikovsky municipal district of the Volgograd region, in Telegram
At least 140 people were injured Monday in southern Russia when a passenger train collided with a truck at a railroad crossing. The incident occurred near the Kotelnikovo station in the Volgograd region, approximately 1,200 km south of Moscow. Nine carriages of the train derailed, Reuters reports.
The train, with 800 passengers on board, was heading from Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, to Adler on the Black Sea coast. The accident occurred after the driver of the KamAZ truck violated the traffic rules and drove onto the crossing, ignoring the prohibition signal. The train driver, seeing the obstacle, braked suddenly, but the collision could not be avoided.
At the time of the collision, the train was moving at a speed of approximately 65 km/h. As a result of the accident, nine wagons derailed, and the damaged truck was thrown 15 meters from the collision site.
“About 140 people received cuts and bruises,” the Russian Railways reported, adding that 15 people, including three children, were taken to the hospital for medical assistance. The truck driver is in serious condition.
A video posted by the Mash Telegram channel shows the mangled remains of the truck’s cab and a man with blood on his face, who has been identified as the driver. Earlier it was reported about two dead, but there is no official confirmation of this information from the Russian authorities yet.
The state-run news agency TASS published a video from the scene showing derailed cars, damaged and lying next to the railway. The Ministry of Emergencies of Russia (Emergencies Ministry) reported that firefighters and rescuers are trying to evacuate passengers. In total, nine cars derailed.
