MANACOR
NINE passengers were hurt yesterday when a carriage of the train in which they were travelling from Palma to Manacor came off the rails.
Emergency services said that the injured, none of them seriously, were ferried to Manacor hospital. The incident occurred at 9.45am when the arriving train should have come to a halt in the station at Manacor which is the end of the line. It failed to stop and smashed into the buffers leaving nine people in the second carriage with minor injuries. Four of the victims have since been released from hospital and the remaining five are expected to go home today.
Local police said the first indications of the cause of the accident was the track itself which had become drenched due to heavy rainfall, possibly causing the train to skid and rendering it unable to stop before hitting the wall at the end of the track. Regional transport minister, Gabriel Vicens also suggested yesterday that the train may have had brake problems although at the time of his speaking, it had not been confirmed whether the failure had been of a human or technical nature.
Vicens said it had been reported that the train had entered the station faster than it should been travelling which caused the middle carriage to come off the line. He added however that the driver at the time was a professional with between 10 and 12 years of experience who had taken a breath test to check for alcohol consumption and it had proved negative.
The minister said an immediate enquiry was being opened on the accident and department director Antoni Verger indicated that the train's black box was to be located to enable technical experts to study the causes of why the train hadn't braked on time.
Meanwhile, the Majorcan Railway Service (SFM) said yesterday that the train service has been re-established and is functioning normally.
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