Express train Oslo-Stockholm derails, abt 30 people injured

[steinjr]

A Swedish express train heading from Oslo in Norway to Stockholm in Sweden derailed this afternoon. The train had about 300 pax (we are heading into a vacation week) when it derailed between the town of Kongsvinger and the border with Sweden.

Two passenger cars went off the track and flipped onto their sides. Thankfully it looks like no deaths. About 30 injured, of which two or three has been classified as seriously injured and airlifted out to the trauma center in Oslo, while the rest has been taken to the local hospital by cars.

Engine looks like a Swedish RC3 or RC4 - basically the same design as the AEM-7 "toaster" engines Amtrak, MARC and SEPTA are operating in the NE United States.

Some pics from the accident scene at this Norwegian news site: http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/01/nyhet.../13651400/

Stein

[tetters]

Oh how terrible. I hope those that were airlifted out pull through.

[steinjr]

Oh how terrible. I hope those that were airlifted out pull through.

Well, the news has been updated to 37 injured, two (a 35 year old woman and a six year old boy) seriously injured. 26 of the injured people has been taken to the local hospital, seven flown down to Oslo, and 4 taken across the border to the Swedish hospital in Arvika.

Hopefully there won't be any fatalities in this accident. Which is sheer luck, given that the first car flipped over on the derailment. A picture from inside the car during the evacuation looks like this (roof on the left, floor on the right):



Stein

[BR60103]

That last picture prompts me to ask:
How would you get out of a train car on its side?
The mid-car partitions are pretty high and the end ones must be too. At one end the door probably has to be slid upwards.

Somewhere there is a device that can take a passenger car and tilt it at various angles. Was it for testing or training emergency workers?

[steinjr]

That last picture prompts me to ask:
How would you get out of a train car on its side?
The mid-car partitions are pretty high and the end ones must be too. At one end the door probably has to be slid upwards.

It's a good question.

The possible egress points I know about are
1) Corridor doors at either end of the car- which would be two seat widths up from the "floor", ie the side wall, when the car is laying on it's side
Old cars, so probably normal door swinging up at one end, down at the other.

2) Doors to outside in the "roof" (ie the side wall that is pointing up) - would be 4 seat widths and an aisle width up from the "floor"

3) Windows along the "roof", same distance as the side walls.

Probably would take some help from fellow passengers, train staff (or arriving fire fighters with ladders) to get out through the sides. Getting out through the end should be possible to do without a ladder or without being hoisted up, but it would not be easy for injured or elderly people.

Good thing there was no fire - the people on the train describe a massive firework of sparks when the 22 kV overhead catenary wire were brought down by the derailing cars slamming into masts.

At the place where the train derailed, a slow order had just been lifted the day before, after the track had had some time to stabilize following a regularily scheduled (every decade or so) ballast cleaning and re-tamping. Might be related to the accident - the investigation will probably show.

Stein