Sixteen people have been hospitalised with severe injuries after a suburban train hit a railway buffer at Richmond Station in Sydney on Monday, reported SBS News. Several other passengers suffered cuts and bruises.
Three choppers and dozens of ambulance, fire and rescue teams are at the spot. “It was chaos,” said Paul Turner, an official with NSW Ambulance. “Things could’ve been much much worse.”
The accident took place at 10 am. Eyewitness Brett Saunders, who was on a platform at the station, said the train did not appear to apply brakes. “He [the train’s driver] was coming in fast with no brakes whatsoever and I knew something was wrong about 40 metres before the barrier,” Saunders told The Australian. “I watched train hit the barrier then bounce up and came back down again hard.”
Sydney Trains chief Howard Collins said it was too early to ascertain the cause of the accident. Transport Minister Andrew Constance said investigators from the Office of Transport Safety Investigators, the Office of National Rail Safety Regulator and Safe Work NSW will start their inquiry at the earliest.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian assured people that the authorities will find out the cause of the accident. “Safety is our number one priority and we will now work to determine what caused the incident,” he said in a statement.
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