International Railroad Discussion > Collision near San Bernardo, Chile

A freight train and what looks like one of the new Chinese EMUs, out on test. Two killed unfortunately.

https://apnews.com/article/chile-train-collision-san-bernardo-57a473185042654ccd6e1de13b003b44

Wow, those pictures tell a story.

I'd guess the fatalities were the Fepasa crew in lead unit 3305.

Sad news. The fepasa SD40-2 shown in the news was rebuilt by Progress Rail of Brazil a few tears ago. 

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Collision in Chile

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

The two fatalties were the engineer/conductor of the Fepasa freight.  Lead SD40-2 3305 was destroyed and they never had a chance.  The accident happened on a high speed double track mainline.  For some reason,  the shakedown tests of the new EMUs were conducted against traffic, i.e. left hand running.  According to this morning's paper, the EMU black box and  train radio were inoperable and cell phone reception was spotty.  So far the EFE dispatcher and EMU driver have been jailed on homicide charges.  If convicted,  they're looking at 15-20 years with no early release. The entire process, includiing any appeals,  should take six months or so.  Other EFE employees are also being questioned and more arrests may be coming.  The four Chinese delivery engineers were passengers on the test train and suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Photo from today's El Mercurio.  The remainder of 3305's cab is hanging from the EMU.  Also a couple of screen grabs from Channel 24 this morning



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/24 09:54 by masterphots.

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