There were fifty passengers on the train, five of whom were taken to hospital with minor injuries. The rest are currently being accommodated in a room next to the track. They will soon be taken to Ghent by bus. “It was a huge blow. The train driver and the train conductor are in shock,” says NMBS spokesperson Bart Crols.
The police and rail manager Infrabel are currently investigating the cause of the collision. It is not yet clear how long rail traffic will be interrupted. “There is a lot of damage to the train and the rail infrastructure,” says Infrabel spokesman Frédéric Petit.
“It was a tremendous blow. It looked like a bombing,” says passenger Johan Dockx The last news. “The train came to a stop a few hundred meters later and all passengers were catapulted from the benches. Then a fire also broke out.”
At the end of last year, a truck was also hit by a train at the same location. The serious collision caused the first two carriages of the train to derail. About seventy to eighty passengers had to be evacuated. Four of them suffered minor injuries.
Tags: Truck driver danger life passengers slightly injured train collision Ardooie
