Saturday, January 7, 2023 | 7:04 p.m.
The reasons that caused the accident are being investigated, since the service in the Mexican capital is automated. //Photo: AP.
The reasons that caused the accident are being investigated, since the service in the Mexican capital is automated. //Photo: AP.
One person died and at least 57 other passengers were injured in a brutal collision between two trains that occurred this Saturday morning in Mexico City (CDMX), according to the mayor of the Mexican capital herself.
The tragic accident occurred between the La Raza and Potrero stations, which belong to Line 3 of the Metro. Local media reported that the crash occurred in the tunnel that connects both stations. Until now, the reasons that caused the accident are being investigated, since the service in CDMX is automated and has a computerized system that brakes the trains to avoid crashes.
Emergency services arrived at the surrounding stations to attend to the injured and dozens of passengers had to get out of the wagons by their own means and walk along the tracks of the Metro Collective Transport Service of Line 3.
Various users detailed that there were several people who were trapped in the wagons and who received the impact directly between the two trains. Meanwhile, local television images showed injured people being treated in ambulances.
“A very strong impact was heard, it felt horrible, people who were unprepared rolled down the corridors,” said Carlos García, a user of Line 3 for the Mexican outlet Milenio.
Claudia Sheinbaum, mayor of the Mexican capital, was at the Potrero subway station where the crash occurred along with six cabinet secretaries and Francisco Chiguil, mayor of the Gustavo A. Madero residential district.
Investigation and complaints
The capital’s Attorney General’s Office reported that it initiated an investigation folder after the tragic accident that occurred in the Metro Collective Transport Service on Line 3 this Saturday.
The agency explained that experts from the Public Ministry and the Investigation Police are already working at the scene to investigate the reasons that caused the accident.
On this, the Secretary of Security Omar García Harfuch commented: “We would not want to speculate and even less on a subject as delicate and unfortunate as this. The metro is already doing its own work to determine what happened, but the FGJ also already has to their experts working to find out”.
Although the metro service in Mexico City is automated and has a computerized system that slows down the trains to avoid collisions, many users through social networks denounced a lack of maintenance in the service that caused several accidents in recent years. The most serious occurred on May 4, 2021 when a Metro bridge collapsed along with a convoy, causing the death of 26 people and injuring hundreds.
