Two trains collide in Almaty

Two trains have collided at Almaty-2 railway station, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Arthur Babayev how witnessed the accident. According to him, he was seeing off his wife who was taking a train to Novosibirsk from Almaty. The train was standing at a platform another train entered the same track and started moving on. “The switch man was suppose to turned it to the incoming train to the third platform, but he switched it to the fourth one instead, while the fourth line was where the passenger train stood. The two trains were still there even after three hours. Both trains got damages: mail coach in the first train and passenger coach in the second train. The crash was quite strong. All the attendants ran out immediately. Passengers of the Almaty-Novosibirsk train were the ones who were injured the most. Some of them fell, some bumped into things or each other, some even required medical aid,” Babayev said. According to the senior transport prosecutor’s office, the accident happened at around 06:05 p.m. on July 28. “The shunter guiding Almaty-Petropavlovsk passenger train (without passengers) to the platform) smashed into Almaty-Novosibirsk passenger train that was loading in the same platform,” the message states. According to preliminary official information, the accident happened because of the dispatcher’s mistake. The dispatcher transferred the Almaty-Petropavlovsk train to the platform where Almaty-Novosibirsk train was standing. Almaty Emergency Situations Department is working at the accident site. According to the officials, 50 people were injured in the accident. Most of them have “insignificant injuries and waived hospitalization, while four people, including one passenger, were hospitalized with different injuries”. Two of them were taken to the City Hospital No.4, two to the City Hospital No.7 and one to the Almaty Oblast Hospital. Semirechinsk transport prosecutors have initiated a criminal case for violation of safety rules and exploitation of the railroad transport (the regulation provides for up to 1 year in jail). According to the press-service of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the accident caused a 3 hour 16 minutes delay in departure of Almaty-Novosibirsk train and a 3 hour 19 minutes delay in departure of Almaty-Petropavlovsk train. “The carrier is taking all the necessary actions to reduce the delays and set these passenger trains back on schedule,” the press-service reports. By Assemgul Kassenova