Thirty-three people, including staff, rode in two trains on Tuesday afternoon on the line between Nový Hamry and the Pernink transport station in the Karlovy Vary region. Only a handful escaped unscathed from the head-on collision, which happened around 15:10. According to the spokesman of the Karlovy Vary rescue service, Radek Hes, 24 people were injured, nine of them moderately seriously. Two people did not survive the accident. Police have already detained one of the train drivers and are investigating the accident on suspicion of committing a crime of general negligence.
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Traffic on the line has already been resumed.
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Passenger trains collided hundreds of meters from the station in Pernink in inaccessible terrain. Firefighters had to walk to the wounded and carried them on stretchers to the tracks. “They ran the slope with hydraulic rescue shears, which was very difficult,” she described for CNN Prima Newwith witness accident.
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Firefighters and police also had to search the area. “In such cases, the injuries happen in shock, they leave the scene of the accident and they leave. From the firefighters and police officers, we separated a group that was looking for these people around, “said Martin Kasal, a spokesman for the regional fire brigade.
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Fortunately, the passengers did not leave the scene of the accident. In addition, local people who witnessed the accident were involved in the treatment of the injured. As well as, for example, a doctor who happened to be nearby. “We wanted to go on a trip. We learned that there was an accident between two trains, so we went there right away. They didn’t want to let me in until I told them I was a doctor, “the woman said Right.
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One of the injured was also the driver of a train heading from Karlovy Vary to Johanngeorgenstadt, Germany. According to witnesses, the second train driver heading for Karlovy Vary remained crushed on the spot. He should be the one the police detained.
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According to České dráhy, which operates transport services on the line, the trains were to cross at the Pernink station according to the timetable. The train from Karlovy Vary has a capacity of 85 seats, the RegioShark train, which went to Karlovy Vary, can carry up to 120 seated passengers. Later, the police specified that the two sets were transporting a total of about thirty people. The track is type D3, where traffic management is on the human factor.
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According to the Czech Railways website, its operation was resumed on Wednesday morning.
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