20000312

At least 30 hurt

as trains collide

in London

LONDON: At least 30 people were hurt, one seriously, when a passenger train hit empty carriages on Friday at London's Waterloo Railway Station police and emergency services said.

Two people were hospitalised overnight including one who underwent heart surgery, hospital officials said.

As an investigation was launched, rescue services said the crash could have been much worse if it had not been for the fact one train was empty and stationary and the other slowing down.

John Pooley, the incident officer for the ambulance service, said: "It was a serious accident, but there have not been as many casualties as there might have been.

"The passenger train was going very slowly. It was slowing down".

The collision happened at 1.50 p.m. when a passenger train ran at low speed into the back of stationary carriages on platform five.

Transport police said, the empty carriages were meant to be there is order to hitched onto the passenger train, which was carrying some 125 people.

The station itself, which is one of the capital's biggest and also a hub for Eurostar services to Paris and Brussels, remained open.

Graham Eccles, Managing Director of South West Trains, which operates the passenger train involved in Friday's collision, said the cause was likely to be either driver error or a fault in the braking system.

"The track was okay and the signal system is not to blame. We will examine the braking system."

He said the driver, who had been questioned by the company and police, was being tested for drugs and alcohol, although he stressed that was "absolutely normal procedure".ÑAFP