At least 20 dead and 35 injured in Puglia train crash

thelocal.it ^ | 07/12/2016

[BenLurkin]

Vito Montanaro, director general of the Bari heath authority, said 20 people had died and 35 were injured in the crash on single-track near the town of Andria in southern Italy. Local authorities had earlier put the death toll at 12.

Eighteen of the 35 reported to be injured are in a critical condition. Hospitals have issued an urgent call for blood donors.

"We need blood group 0," Giuseppe Corrado, president of Barletta-Andria-Trani province, said. The injured have been taken to hospitals in Andria, Barletta and Bisceglie.

People are still trapped in the wreckage of the crash, which was caused when two four-carriage long trains collided on a stretch of track between the towns of Ruvo di Puglia and Corato on the Bari North line at around 11.30am.

[allendale]

Have to wonder just who controls the train traffic and the signals in the new multicultural Italy.

[T-Bone Texan]

Italy has always been multicultural, but not in the way we think of it.

Around 20 different languages are spoken in Northern Italy, some going extinct right now. Calabrese, for example.

[Carl Vehse]

The combined speeds of the trains must have been very high. Each train had four cars. Of the eight cars, one smashed car is somewhat recognizable. Three others were turned into a pile of metal scrap.

[LottieDah]

Prayers for all.

[alternatives?]

Trivia item. Bari was the location of a poison gas leak during WWII. A liberty ship was stuck by a German bomb and poison gas from the ship was released. It was hidden because the allies weren’t supposed to have poison gas. Quite a few died.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[bravo whiskey]

if it was two four car trains it looks like one car from each train disintegrated on impact

[Diana in Wisconsin]

WOW! I can’t believe more weren’t killed!

[BlessedBeGod]