BBC: Norwegian Train Crash

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Damn. Looks like we're all in big trouble. Watch for an epidemic of head-on train collisions.

Tuesday, 4 January, 2000, 19:46 GMT Norway train crash sparks deadly blaze

The blaze lasted several hours, hampering rescue efforts At least seven people have died and as many as 30 are missing after two passenger trains collided at high speed in southern Norway. Police feared some were still trapped in the wreckage, which blazed for several hours after the accident.

Several carriages overturned after the two locomotives crashed head-on at the remote Aasta station, near Elverum, about 150km (100 miles) north of Oslo.

Rescue services were swiftly at the scene A senior policeman at the scene, Ove Osgjelten, said: "There are still people in the trains ... I can't even guess how many".

He said police would not be able to get into the train until Wednesday morning at the earliest.

Rescuers said they had been hampered by a wall of fire, as well as dense forest and the early winter nightfall.

Click here for map

One passenger, Robert Ulriksen, said he had seen at least two people trapped in the crash.

"We tried to get them out but couldn't. We kept them calm until the ambulance personnel arrived," he said.

"The train had turned over and was on its side. Baggage and passengers were spread around the aisle," he told NRK public radio.

Ambulances ferried the injured to nearby hospitals Another passenger, Jeanette Haug, said: "People said there was fire and we had to get out. But it was calm and I think people did well."

Sheriff Per Ravnkleven, who led rescue efforts, said the scene had been chaotic.

"We have control over the situation in the degree possible in relation to such an accident scene," he said.

Four helicopters and eight ambulances were involved in the rescue operation.

Doctor Tore Kristiansen of the Hedmark Hospital told reporters that a surgeon had been sent to help extract passengers and "perform amputations". Rescue dogs were also used to locate bodies and survivors.

A nearby national highway was closed to all but emergency services. Weather conditions were described as difficult.

Accounting for those on board was made more difficult because some of the uninjured were thought to have left the scene. Police were appealing for them to get in contact.

"We can confirm seven dead," Jostein Loken, a deputy police chief in Elverum, said. He said 22 people had been taken to hospital. At least one person was airlifted to Bergen.

A further 47 were driven to a local hotel set up as a crisis centre - leaving up to 30 unaccounted for as police continued to check lists of survivors.

One passenger, Johan Atle Lein, told Norwegian TV2 shortly after the crash that he feared "there might be 10 or 15 dead".

Officials at the Norwegian state railways originally said 96 people had been on board the two trains, but spokesman Arne Vidar Heshedal later revised the estimate to about 100 people.

No warning

Passengers said there had been no warning of the crash - which happened at around 1345 local time (1245 GMT).

National Railway spokesman Arvid Bardstuen said that it was too early to establish the cause. A national investigating team was on its way to the site.

One train was an express from Trondheim to Oslo. It was carrying 83 passengers. The other was a local train heading from Hamar to Rena, with 17 passengers.

The accident is the most serious on the Norwegian train system since 1975, when 27 people were killed in a crash in the same part of the country.

-- Rick (rick@wmrs.edu), January 04, 2000

Answers

About twice a year we hear of major train crashes in various places in the world. They haven't established the cause yet (usually takes awhile to investigate). Let's not jump the gun and say we're all in big trouble! Could be Y2K related, timing could also be coincidence.

-- Hope Full (notareal@address.com), January 04, 2000.

Yup. Twice a year. One in Canada on - two trains collide in Toronto; the other --this one -- in Norway on January 3. We've met our annual quota in the first 72 hours. Guess this means ti'll be safe to take thte trainfrom here on out.

Tragic accident of course, and no intention to make light of the deaths.

-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), January 04, 2000.


Hope Full, I hope you're right but the reason trains run safely night and day in both directions isn't luck, it's computers. If computers screw up, you get head-on collisions. If this is a trend, there will be no doubt in just a few days.

-- Rick (rick@wmrs.edu), January 04, 2000.

People are pretty upset about this here (in Denmark), as there are strong links with Norway. No point in posting the Danish reports, so here's a report from the Guardian (UK):

FRIENDS FLY HOME FROM TRAIN CRASH HORROR (From the Press Association, Wednesday January 5, 2000 06:57 am) A party of British holidaymakers who narrowly escaped death in a head- on train collision in Norway is returning home. The group of eight friends, who helped drag injured survivors from the wreckage of their train before it was engulfed in flames, are to fly back from Oslo. Consular officials are arranging travel arrangements for the Britons, whose passports were burned in the accident - along with their luggage. At least seven people died and 26 are missing after two passenger trains with 96 passengers and crew on board collided in southern Norway. After a seven-hour search, authorities suspended rescue efforts as night fell, after putting out fires sparked by the collision. Police said it was highly unlikely any more survivors would be found when the search resumes. "They are probably not alive. The damage was so great that they could not have survived," district Police Chief Magnar Lynum said when asked about those missing. Skier Ben Stephenson told how he and seven friends pulled passengers from their doomed train after the accident near the town of Aamodt, 110 miles north of Oslo. Mr Stephenson, 30, from Chester, described the race against time as diesel sprayed into the wreckage from a crumpled locomotive fuelling a massive fireball. Mr Stephenson said he and a group of friends - Catriona Prebble from Edinburgh, Sarah Muscroft, of Gosport, Hampshire, Richard Stephenson, from Chester, Jim and Alex Ramsay from Brill, Bucks, Fiona Donaldson of Guildford, Surrey, and Nicholas McWilliam from Edinburgh, working in Cambridge - were approaching the end of a seven-day skiing trip over the New Year.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), January 05, 2000.


CNN: Norway trains collide, at least 7 killed, another 26 feared dead

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), January 05, 2000.


Reuters report: "Officials said there was no sign that the so-called millennium bug was the cause of the accident."

Errr... what 'sign' would you expect? Yeti tracks in the snow?

Norway fears up to 33 killed in rail crash

9.30 a.m. Children on a shopping trip on the last day of the Christmas holiday were feared to be among 33 people believed to have died in a head-on collision between two trains in Norway, police said today.

Rescue workers prepared to search the burned-out wrecks of the two trains after Tuesday's head-on collision at Asta station about 160 km (100 miles) north of Oslo.

The children from a local school were on a shopping trip and are believed to be among victims still trapped in the wreckage.

Police, firefighters and other experts met at the site of the overturned and burnt out carriages at daybreak to plan the search of the trains, which had been carrying 100 people.

"We will bring out the dead from the wreck, start identification and try to find the cause of the accident," Jostein Loken, a deputy police chief in the nearby town of Elverum said.

Rescue workers found seven bodies yesterday but police said another 26 bodies were believed to be in carriages.

Overnight snow and sub-zero temperatures, which froze water used by fire-fighters to douse a five-hour blaze, would complicate the work.

"We need pretty heavy equipment to cut through the train," said Vidar Pedersen, a police officer on the scene.

The crash was on a long single line of track usually reserved for alternating northbound and southbound traffic. Officials said there was no sign that so-called millennium bug was the cause of the accident.

(Reuters)

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), January 05, 2000.


SH: Didn't hear about the Canadian crash, guess my head was buried...did not intend in any way to make light of such a horrible situation. Was simply saying that we didn't know if the Norwegian crash was Y2K related. My apologies if there was any offense taken.

-- Hope Full (notareal@address.com), January 05, 2000.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ