New details on the streetcar accident Mayor of Milan: "Driver had only been on duty for an hour"
A streetcar derailed in Milan on Friday and crashed into a building. Numerous people were injured and two people were killed. The rescue work is still ongoing.
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- In Milan, a streetcar from Swiss manufacturer Stadler Rail derailed and crashed into a store.
- The accident killed two people and injured numerous others, some of them seriously.
- The authorities are now investigating the cause of the derailment.
Two people have been killed and numerous others injured in a streetcar accident in Milan, according to local media reports. The streetcar on line 9 derailed on Friday near the center of the northern Italian metropolis and crashed into a building.
One man was trapped under the vehicle and died at the scene. According to reports in the newspaper Il Giorno, the man was a 60-year-old Italian. Another person later died. Several people suffered injuries, some of them serious, after also being trapped under the train.
According to eyewitnesses, the streetcar should have been traveling straight ahead, but turned left at high speed and derailed. It only came to a halt in the entrance area of a restaurant. The driver's cab was badly damaged.
One of the injured passengers described the incident to the Ansa news agency: "I thought it was an earthquake. It was terrible." A video shows the streetcar leaning very much to one side before crashing into the building. Several passengers were in shock after the accident. The fire department and ambulances were deployed on a large scale.
Streetcar had only been in service for a short time
The public prosecutor's office is now investigating negligent homicide and personal injury. The streetcar, a modern model, is said to have only been in service for a few months.
According to Beppe Sala, the mayor of Milan, the driver of the streetcar was an experienced employee. He had only been on duty for about an hour at the time of the accident. It was striking that the driver had missed a stop shortly beforehand for reasons that are as yet unexplained. The driver was injured and is currently in hospital.
There is now speculation that he may have suffered an attack of weakness. As is usual in such cases, blood was taken from him for an alcohol and drug test.
The vehicle involved in the accident is a new Tramlink model. The streetcars had only been put into operation a few days previously and are intended to gradually replace older vehicles. They were produced by Swiss manufacturer Stadler Rail in a factory in Valencia, Spain.