03-24-2010, 12:12 PM
Hi --
We've had a nasty train accident over here in Oslo, Norway, today - 16 empty flatcars rolled away at the freight yard at Alnabru, and rolled about five miles downhill before careening off the track at the docks, hitting and throwing several tractor/trailers into the harbor and making a office/warehouse building collapse. News reports say three dead, one missing and four or five injured down at the docks :-(
My brother works at the yards up there, went in to work this afternoon, and sent me a text message this afternoon saying that place is full of police, railroad and traffic safety board inspectors, who are interviewing those of his coworkers that was working when this happened.
Only "good" thing is that someone at traffic control seemingly made a fast (and almost certainly correct) decision that when attempts to detour the runaway cars into a single ended siding further up the valley came too late, it was better to route them towards the harbor docks than towards Oslo Central passenger station. I shudder at the thought of what fifteen freight cars moving at 80+ kilometers and hour would have done with an EMU filled with commuters. Too bad the police did not have time to warn people down at the docks - those poor blokes never knew what hit them :-(
Lord knows what set the cars rolling. Hopefully the investigation will find the answer to that question.
This is what the accident scene looks like from the air:
![[Image: 88-f40be431-8d1f07f8.jpeg]](http://static03.vg.no/drfront/images/2010-03/24/88-f40be431-8d1f07f8.jpeg)
Stein
We've had a nasty train accident over here in Oslo, Norway, today - 16 empty flatcars rolled away at the freight yard at Alnabru, and rolled about five miles downhill before careening off the track at the docks, hitting and throwing several tractor/trailers into the harbor and making a office/warehouse building collapse. News reports say three dead, one missing and four or five injured down at the docks :-(
My brother works at the yards up there, went in to work this afternoon, and sent me a text message this afternoon saying that place is full of police, railroad and traffic safety board inspectors, who are interviewing those of his coworkers that was working when this happened.
Only "good" thing is that someone at traffic control seemingly made a fast (and almost certainly correct) decision that when attempts to detour the runaway cars into a single ended siding further up the valley came too late, it was better to route them towards the harbor docks than towards Oslo Central passenger station. I shudder at the thought of what fifteen freight cars moving at 80+ kilometers and hour would have done with an EMU filled with commuters. Too bad the police did not have time to warn people down at the docks - those poor blokes never knew what hit them :-(
Lord knows what set the cars rolling. Hopefully the investigation will find the answer to that question.
This is what the accident scene looks like from the air:
Stein