Belgium: train derailed at Leuven

[gysev]

At 13.20 this afternoon, a train derailed when leaving the station of Leuven. One coach of EMU 326 is lying on its side. Police confirms one passanger deceased and 19 injurered. A first press report (in Dutch) can be found here:

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/binnenland/1.2895151

the derailment of a train near Leuven: 1 dead and 27 wounded. The cause of the accident is still unknown.

The train had just departed from the station of Leuven and was heading towards De Panne when it derailed at 13:13. One car of the three-car train is apparently rotated around its axis and then tilted. In total, were a hundred people on the train.

One person died in the accident, confirms mayor Louis Tobback.

According to Frederic Petit of Infrabel there are three investigations: one by public prosecutor and the police, one by the FPS Mobility and an internal investigation by the railways.

Updates will follow.

 

[Cowley]

Looks pretty bad from the picture.

 

[2HAP]

Story in English from The Metro.

One person is dead and several more have been injured after a train has derailed in Belgium.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/02/18/passe...outside-belgium-station-6456901/?ito=facebook

 

[gysev]

Update: the person killed was not on the train. Why he was walking along the tracks is not yet known.

 

[Quakkerillo]

Update: the person killed was not on the train. Why he was walking along the tracks is not yet known.

I read somewhere that it happened in a works area, so possibly a railway maintenance worker. Although none of this is confirmed, this would be the most plausible reason for both a death, and the derailment (works-related).

Because an overspeed derail + trespasser getting killed by it at the same time would be a very weird coincidence.

 

[trainmania100]

I read on the metro it was running on a slow speed section, perhaps a track defect but its my opinion

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I read somewhere that it happened in a works area, so possibly a railway maintenance worker. Although none of this is confirmed, this would be the most plausible reason for both a death, and the derailment (works-related).

Because an overspeed derail + trespasser getting killed by it at the same time would be a very weird coincidence.

In the head-on in Italy last summer , one of the victims was an argriculateral worker in an adjacent field.Tragic.

 

[duesselmartin]

German media suggest faulty points.

 

[Groningen]

According to the Gazet van Antwerpen there was indeed a person walking on the tracks, was hit and died. But there is a strange sentence in the article. > And derailed a few hunderds meters further, because of a to be named reason. How can a train derail with only hitting a person?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

According to the Gazet van Antwerpen there was indeed a person walking on the tracks, was hit and died. But there is a strange sentence in the article. > And derailed a few hunderds meters further, because of a to be named reason. How can a train derail with only hitting a person?

The Polmont disaster was caused by the thigh-bone of a cow hit by the train, which wedged between the track and the wheels, levering the train off the rails. It's unlikely that a human body would do the same, but probably not impossible.

 

[Ploughman]

If a maintenance worker then possibly carrying tools such as a 6ft bar.

 

[gysev]

It seems there was some confusion. On television, it was now said that the victim was trapped under the coach and that he was indeed a passenger.

There was no work possession on the line - and even if that was the case, a train would not have been sent through it !

 

[30907]

On a quick check, the reports about the dead person are still contradictory.
The train had just left Leuven station and wouldnt have been travelling very fast.
Reports say that the derailment occurred at points.
Nothing more definite as yet AFAIK.

 

[Derbyshire Gra]

From the aerial photos on line, it is evident that coach 1 and bogie 1 of coach 2 took the straight track at the points, whilst bogie 2 of coach 2 and both bogies of coach 3 crossed over the point work onto the adjacent line, leaving coach 2 at an angle of 45degrees spanning two adjacent tracks. It appears that the force pulled the front car off the line and catapulted it around to face the direction from which it came.

 

[30907]

From the aerial photos on line, it is evident that coach 1 and bogie 1 of coach 2 took the straight track at the points, whilst bogie 2 of coach 2 and both bogies of coach 3 crossed over the point work onto the adjacent line, leaving coach 2 at an angle of 45degrees spanning two adjacent tracks. It appears that the force pulled the front car off the line and catapulted it around to face the direction from which it came.

That's bad. Could you post a link? Google isn't helping me!

 

[Groningen]

Location is at 50.899472, 4.710975. In the backside you can see high voltage tower with white/red stripping in the top.

 

[Derbyshire Gra]

That's bad. Could you post a link? Google isn't helping me!

See if this still works
http://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/fai...de-louvain-sans-doute-des-blesses-892404.aspx

 

[daikilo]

From the aerial photos on line, it is evident that coach 1 and bogie 1 of coach 2 took the straight track at the points, whilst bogie 2 of coach 2 and both bogies of coach 3 crossed over the point work onto the adjacent line, leaving coach 2 at an angle of 45degrees spanning two adjacent tracks. It appears that the force pulled the front car off the line and catapulted it around to face the direction from which it came.

You may be right, but I would not deduce that from the position of the first vehicle. Note that there is an aparently undamaged OHLE mast on the trackbed between coaches 1 and 2 suggesting to me that coach 1 rotated and detached whilst still moving "forward" implying it was already derailed to the left in the direction of travel . I see this as "confirmed" by the damage to the signalling troughs and wiring.

 

[MarcVD]

From the aerial photos on line, it is evident that coach 1 and bogie 1 of coach 2 took the straight track at the points, whilst bogie 2 of coach 2 and both bogies of coach 3 crossed over the point work onto the adjacent line, leaving coach 2 at an angle of 45degrees spanning two adjacent tracks. It appears that the force pulled the front car off the line and catapulted it around to face the direction from which it came.

Have a look at Google Earth which gives a very good view of the station's track plan. You'll see that there are no points at all where the train is stopped, and even no facing points for almost half a km before that. Is it reasonable to think that the train could have travelled that distance on two parallel tracks before finally derailing ?

Envoyé de mon GT-I9505 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[MarkyT]

Have a look at Google Earth which gives a very good view of the station's track plan. You'll see that there are no points at all where the train is stopped, and even no facing points for almost half a km before that.

Depends which track the train was approaching on from Leuven station. There is a long left hand crossover across all tracks just before the wreckage. This includes double slips.

Is it reasonable to think that the train could have travelled that distance on two parallel tracks before finally derailing ?

Crew or passengers would surely have noticed such an occurance earlier, so I think it's fairly obvious the derailment occurred through the long crossover.

 

[Quakkerillo]

Yes, the train will have come from the cross-over. During weekdays this train departs from track 1 as a through train from Landen, and is on the straight non-crossover route, but on weekends it departs from platform 7 on the Northern side, starting from Leuven, thus needs to use the long crossover to get onto the Slow Leuven-Brussel/Airport tracks.

 

[Derbyshire Gra]

Looking further at the kink that appears in the track occupied by the lead bogie of the second car, it makes you wonder whether the first bogie of the train correctly took the outside track, but the second and third bogies took the wrong path thus creating a very sharp angle between first and second vehicles that simply could not be sustained and thus leading to the derailment? Pure guesswork on my part - but might explain how the lead vehicle came to be facing back on itself? Also, the lead bogie of the derailed car looks to be very twisted in the photo lower down the page

 

[gysev]

Have a look at Google Earth which gives a very good view of the station's track plan. You'll see that there are no points at all where the train is stopped, and even no facing points for almost half a km before that. Is it reasonable to think that the train could have travelled that distance on two parallel tracks before finally derailing ?

In fact, the train ran "wrong line" between the station and the switches you can see on the picture. It derailed when it crossed over to the left.

 

[Jordeh]

Am I right in thinking there has been a reasonable number of accidents on Belgian railways in the past few years?

 

[30907]

See if this still works
http://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/fai...de-louvain-sans-doute-des-blesses-892404.aspx

Thanks, and to subsequent posters, makes sense now.

 

[atillathehunn]

Am I right in thinking there has been a reasonable number of accidents on Belgian railways in the past few years?

Yes, there have.

There was the fatal collision at Huy recently. EMU ran into the back of a freight train at around 90kph. Killed 4 I believe.

A chemical-carrying train derailed and caught fire near Ghent killing one fairly recently.

2010 there was the multiple fatility collision at Halle. 18 died.

 

[2HAP]

Am I right in thinking there has been a reasonable number of accidents on Belgian railways in the past few years?

List of rail accidents (2010–present) on Wikipedia only lists five since 2010.

 

[Jordeh]

List of rail accidents (2010–present) on Wikipedia only lists five since 2010.

Thank you very interesting.

15 February 2010 – Belgium – Halle train collision - Two passenger trains collide head-on in Buizingen near Brussels. 18 people were killed and 162 were injured.

15 September 2010 – Belgium – Two trains collide at Aarlen, injuring 30–40 people, two seriously.

3 May 2013 – Belgium – A freight train derails in Schellebelle near Ghent. Three wagons carrying acrylonitrile explode and catch fire. One person dies and 33 are injured from toxic fumes in local neighbourhoods.

6 June 2016 – Belgium – Hermalle-sous-Huy train collision: A passenger train runs into the rear of a freight train at Hermalle-sous-Huy. Three people are killed, about 40 are injured, nine seriously.

8 February 2017 – Belgium – 2017 Leuven derailment: A passenger train derails at Leuven. One person is killed and nineteen are injured.

Based on that, for a small country (ridership is 8x lower than in Great Britain), I'm inclined to say that is pretty poor.

 

[2HAP]

Based on that, for a small country (ridership is 8x lower than in Great Britain), I'm inclined to say that is pretty poor.

The corresponding figure for the United Kingdom is 24, not counting last year's tram crash in Croydon.

 

[Jordeh]

The corresponding figure for the United Kingdom is 24, not counting last year's tram crash in Croydon.

Worth noting no fatalities or particularly significant rail accidents since 2010 in the UK.

The UK's accidents are comparatively minor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_(2010–present)