Dozens Believed Killed in Bus-Train Collision
(APW_ENG_19950415.0097)
1) More than 40 people were killed Saturday when a bus carrying factory workers collided with a passenger train at a rail crossing in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, police said.
2) Forty-two people died and 45 injured when a bus carrying workers to a clothing factory was struck by an express train near Quwesna, about 60 kilometers (36 miles) north of Cairo, police said.
3) Police reports from the scene had first put the death toll at 70. There was no explanation for discrepancy, but it could have been confusion over the total of dead and injured.
4) There were conflicting reports over whether the bus driver ignored a warning signal or was mistakenly waved through the crossing by a railway guard. The crash happened about 7 a.m. (0500gmt).
5) Wreckage from the bus was strewn along a 200 meter (yard) path next to the tracks. About two kilometers away, reporters saw a locomotive with a damaged front.
6) Most of the victims were believed to have been bus passengers, but witnesses said some people riding on the top of the train -- a common practice in Egypt -- were thrown off and hurt.
7) Six of the injured were treated and released at the scene, and the others were taken to nearby hospitals. About 90 people were said to be on the bus going from the nearby town of Arab el-Ram to the factory in Quwesna.
8) Witnesses said the bus driver stopped at the crossing in response to alarm bells, waited for a South-North train to pass and then was waved across by a guard. When he drove onto the tracks, the bus was struck by the Alexandria-Cairo express going the opposite direction, they said.
9) But an Interior Ministry statement blamed the bus driver, saying he ignored the alarm and warnings from railway guards.
10) There was no barrier at the crossing, only the warning signals. It took about two hours to clear the tracks of wreckage.


Five Killed, 35 Injured As Train Hits A Bus
(APW_ENG_19960411.0674)
1) A railroad train smashed an inter-city bus Thursday at a crossing, killing five passengers and injuring 35 others, police said.
2) The bus driver didn't see the train coming at an unmanned railroad crossing in Faridpur district, 40 miles (65 kilometers) southwest of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital.
3) Five bodies were recovered from the bus wreckage, police said.
4) At least 35 bus passengers were hospitalized. Three of them were in critical condition, police said. (fh/aks)


Train slams into bus killing 6 children, 3 adults
(APW_ENG_19970121.0551)
1) A passenger train slammed into a school bus Tuesday, killing six children and three adults, the state-run news reported.
2) The bus was crossing an unmarked railway crossing in the eastern Punjab provincial capital of Lahore when it was hit by a passenger train, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
3) The nine people, including the bus driver, died instantly. Five other children and a teacher were rushed to hospital with serious wounds.
4) There were no reports of injuries to passengers aboard the train.
5) Railway officials blamed the bus driver for the accident, saying he didn't stop at the railway crossing.


13 people killed in bus-train collision
(APW_ENG_19970323.1000)
1) Thirteen people were killed and 20 others injured Monday when a passenger bus collided with a train at a rail crossing in southern South Korea, police said.
2) The accident occurred when the bus driver ignored a red light and tried to cross the rail crossing near Namwon, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Seoul shortly after 9 a.m. (0000 GMT), they said.
3) All of those killed and injured were passengers on the bus, police said.


Philippine train hits bus, injuring at least 12
(APW_ENG_19971008.0431)
1) A commuter train hit a bus at a crossing in metropolitan Manila Wednesday, injuring at least 12 passengers, officials said.
2) Police investigators said the bus driver apparently ignored the train's horn and a signal light and tried to make it to the other side of the crossing before the train arrived, but was unable to cross because of heavy traffic.
3) When he saw the train was going to hit the bus, he apparently turned on to the side of the tracks to avoid a direct impact, and the bus was sideswiped, police said. The driver fled after the accident, they said.
4) Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati, Manila's business district, said 12 passengers on the bus were hospitalized. No one was injured on the train, he said.
5) It was the second train accident in metropolitan Manila in less than a month. On Sept. 22, two overloaded commuter trains bound for Manila collided after one separated from its engine and rolled backward more than two kilometers (one mile) into the path of the second train, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 200 others.
6) The Philippine train system is old and generally in poor condition, with many unguarded crossings.


Speeding train kills 12 bus passengers
(APW_ENG_19981218.0570)
1) An express train plowed through a bus at a crossing Friday, killing at least 12 people and injuring 10, police said.
2) The accident occurred in Jhenidah district, 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital.
3) Ten passengers from the bus died instantly and two others died on way to hospital, police said. All the victims were from the bus, which reportedly got stuck at the crossing.


12 killed in India as train rams into bus Eds: LEADS throughout to UPDATE with more deaths, ADD detail. No
(APW_ENG_19981226.0151)
1) A train rammed into a bus that was crossing railroad tracks in eastern India Saturday, killing 12 people and injuring six others, domestic news agencies reported.
2) Railway officials said impatient bus passengers, who had been waiting for an ``all clear'' signal at the crossing, snatched the keys from the guard and forcibly opened the gate to pass through, the Press Trust of India reported.
3) While the bus was crossing the tracks, a freight train came at full speed and crashed into the bus. All the victims were coal miners who were on their way to work in the bus.
4) The accident occurred near Dhanbad in eastern Bihar state, about 1,100 kilometers (660 miles) southeast of New Delhi.
5) The train's speed was not immediately available.


Six people dead after bus collides with train
(APW_ENG_20020220.1240)
1) A bus collided with a passenger train in eastern Romania on Wednesday, killing six people and seriously injuring four others.
2) The train hit the bus carrying 20 passengers at a crossing near the town of Munteni, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Bucharest, pushing it down the tracks for about 500 meters (yards).
3) The bus driver, who escaped with moderate injuries, told police the engine had stopped while he was crossing the tracks.
4) Police are investigating whether the driver ignored warnings that the train was approaching.
5) The passengers were rushed to local hospitals, and four were reported to be seriously injured.


Six killed, 24 injured when train crashes into bus in Brazil
(APW_ENG_20020316.0728)
1) Six people burned to death and 24 were seriously injured when a cargo train crashed into a passenger bus at a crossing in southeastern Brazil early Saturday, transport police said.
2) The bus driver, Lucivaldo Remigio Silva, did not see the train arriving at a railway crossing on a country road outside Espinosa in Minas Gerais state, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, said a local police officer on condition of anonymity.
3) The train, traveling at about 50 kph (31 mph) dragged the bus for 150 meters (495 feet) before it could stop, leading to the explosion of the bus' fuel tank, he said.
4) The driver and 23 bus passengers were taken to nearby hospitals with heavy burns and bone fractures, police said.


URGENT At least 31 dead after train collides with bus carrying German tourists in Hungary
(APW_ENG_20030508.0120)
1) At least 31 people were killed Thursday when a double-decker bus carrying German tourists was hit by a train at a crossing near the resort of Lake Balaton, rescue officials said.
2) The accident occurred near the town of Siofok, one of the most popular tourist resorts on Lake Balaton, some 100 kilometers (63 miles) southwest of Budapest.
3) Tibor Dobson, spokesman for the National Catastrophe Directorate, said 31 people were killed and at least 12 were injured in the accident.
4) Pal Gyorfi, a spokesman for the National Rescue Service, said 11 people had been taken to hospitals with injuries. He would not confirm the number of dead or injured, saying that rescue efforts were still underway.
5) Gyorfi said it was also too early to give any more details about the bus.
6) ``The wreckage is too deformed,'' Gyorfi told Info Radio, a Budapest all-news radio station.
7) According to Dobson, no one suffered any serious injuries on the passenger train which collided with the bus.
8) Lake Balaton draws large numbers of tourists every year, and is especially popular with German tourists.
9) (pg/vg)


Train collides with bus carrying German tourists, killing dozens
(APW_ENG_20030508.0320)
1) A passenger train sliced through a double-decker tour bus that apparently drove through a flashing rail crossing Thursday, killing at least 32 German tourists and injuring nine others in one of Hungary's worst such disasters.
2) The accident occurred at about 8:30 (0630 GMT) at a railroad crossing near the town of Siofok, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Budapest. The town is a popular tourist resort on Lake Balaton, Central Europe's largest lake.
3) Thirty-two people died in the crash, Capt. Tamas Hekker, the Siofok police chief and coordinator of the rescue effort, told The Associated Press. Hekker said 30 died at the scene, one victim died while being transported to a hospital by helicopter and another person died at a hospital.
4) Nine people were still being treated in hospital, Hekker added, with one in critical condition and five in serious condition.
5) Contradicting earlier reports, Hekker said the driver of the bus was German, but there was no information available on his condition.
6) The train driver and one passenger on the train were slightly injured and were being treated at a hospital. The train was traveling at about 100 kilometers an hour (60 miles per hour) when it struck the bus, Hekker said.
7) Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy called the crash ``one of the all-time worst traffic accidents'' in Hungary. He said he had expressed his condolences by telephone to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
8) The train severed the bus in two, dragging one of the sections about 150 meters (160 yards) along the tracks, said Tibor Dobson, spokesman for the National Catastrophe Directorate.
9) Although the cause of the accident had not yet been determined, state railway officials said the crossing signal was flashing red when the bus started moving across the tracks.
10) An eyewitness at the scene also said he had seen the bus cross the track while the warning lights were red.
11) ``The train blew its whistle twice to warn the bus, but the train was not able to stop in time,'' the witness, Istvan Galos, a 39-year-old engineer, told the AP. Galos said he was had reached the tracks in his car from the opposite direction when the accident occurred.
12) Galos said the vehicle was traveling with another bus which had crossed the tracks while the light was still flashing white. Both buses bore German license plates.
13) The crossing was unguarded and only a flashing light served as a warning of oncoming trains, with no gates or barriers. Gate or barriers are rare at Hungarian railway crossings.
14) Mounds of twisted steel barely recognizable as a vehicle, including bus metal wrapped around the front of the locomotive, were visible at the scene. Several bodies were still lying at the side of the tracks, covered with blankets, in the early afternoon.
15) The front end of the bus appeared to be charred.
16) Police were working on trying to identify the victims before taking the bodies to a morgue.
17) Lt. Col. Laszlo Gelencser of the Somogy County Police said the impact with the train propelled the front part of the bus about 50 meters (yards) away from the crossing by the train, while the other half had been dragged along the tracks.
18) The German Embassy said it had set up a crisis center near the scene of the accident.
19) An official for Ursel-Reisen, the owner of the bus, said the passengers came mainly from two German states, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.
20) From spring to fall, thousands of tourists visit the 369-square-mile (595-square-kilometer) lake _ central Europe's biggest. Hordes of holiday makers swarm to Balaton's shallow southern shores, northern hills and vineyards.
21) The water of Lake Balaton is rich in minerals _ especially calcium and magnesium _ reputed to have a therapeutic effect on bathers' blood circulation.
22) The area is especially popular with German tourists.
23) (pg/vg/bk)


Train crashes into tourist bus, killing 34 German tourists
(APW_ENG_20030508.0561)
1) A train knifed through a bus carrying German tourists on Thursday, killing at least 34 passengers. A witness said the driver ran a blinking red light warning of the approaching passenger express.
2) Seven people were injured and the bus, carrying some 40 people, mostly retirees, was practically split in two by the force of the crash near Lake Balaton, a popular European vacation spot.
3) The train was traveling at a speed of about 100 kilometers an hour (60 mph) when it struck the bus around 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) at a railroad crossing near Siofok, said the city's police chief, Capt. Tamas Hekker. The resort town is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Budapest.
4) ``There was an enormous crashing sound when the train hit the bus and I saw parts of the bus flying out in the air,'' said engineer Istvan Galos, 39, who witnessed the accident. ``The train blew its whistle twice to warn the bus, but the train was not able to stop in time.''
5) Galos said the light blinked red to signal the approach of a train, and officials of the state-run railway said the crossing lights were in working order.
6) Five people from the bus, including some in serious condition, were being treated at area hospitals. The driver of the train and one train passenger were also slightly injured.
7) Officials from Siofok in charge of the rescue efforts confirmed that a 34th victim died late Thursday afternoon at a hospital in Szekesfehervar, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Siofok.
8) Cleaning up the carnage, emergency crews pulled plastic sheeting and blankets over dozens of bodies spread out on the grass near the crossing, some of them mutilated beyond recognition.
9) Reporters were not allowed to interview survivors, but a doctor treating two German women who were passengers said both had suffered concussions and had no memory of the crash.
10) Dr. Jeno Toth said the Hungarian tour guide who was on the bus at the time of the crash, could only remember ``a crashing sound while she stood at the front of the bus.''
11) ``Next, she found herself lying on the ground after being thrown out of the bus through one of the windows,'' said Toth, a duty doctor at Siofok hospital.
12) There was no information about the whereabouts or condition of the bus driver, a German.
13) Two buses with German license plates were traveling together, said Galos, the witness, and while the first bus crossed the train tracks when the warning light was white, the second bus attempted to follow as the lights were flashing red.
14) The light was the only warning, as gates or barriers are rare at Hungarian railway crossings.
15) ``I've never seen anything like it in my life,'' Galos said. ``There were limbs hanging out of the smashed windows of the bus.''
16) The crash left mounds of twisted steel barely recognizable as a vehicle, including bus metal wrapped around the front of the locomotive.
17) The front end of the bus appeared to be charred and landed some 50 meters (yards) from the crossing. The back part burst into flames after being dragged along the tracks for some 150 meters (160 yards) by the train en route from Budapest to Nagykanizsa in southern Hungary, near the border with Croatia.
18) Ambulances took most of the bodies to morgues by early afternoon, but several were still lying at the side of the tracks, covered with blankets. Bottles of mineral water, women's bathing suits and pages of German newspapers were scattered around the wreckage.
19) In an indication of the force of the crash, the body of one victim was found inside the locomotive's engine compartment.
20) Hospital officials said a similar accident had occurred in 1980 at the same rail crossing, killing 24 Hungarians.
21) Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy said after a visit to scene of the accident that physical barriers, such as gates or bars, needed to be installed at railroad crossings.
22) In Berlin, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder offered his condolences to the victims' relatives.
23) (pvs/pg/sl)


Bus driver in deadly crash ignored warning lights
(APW_ENG_20030509.0334)
1) The driver of a tourist bus that collided with a passenger train at a railway crossing, killing 33 people, ignored warning lights and should have been able to see the approaching train before it reached the crossing, authorities said Friday.
2) The German bus driver and 32 mostly elderly German tourists were killed in the accident Thursday, while five people _ four tourists and a Hungarian tour guide _ were injured, some seriously.
3) Economics Minister Istvan Csillag earlier said the bus driver had maneuvered around a minibus that had stopped to wait for the train to pass, but his spokeswoman later corrected that statement.
4) The minibus was waiting on the opposite side of the crossing, and the bus driver should have been able to see it, Csillag's spokeswoman Katalin Szoke told The Associated Press. Csillag attended a reenactment of the accident held Friday morning.
5) Szoke also said the bus was the second in a convoy of two, correcting earlier information that three buses traveled together.
6) The bus driver ignored flashing red warning lights and might not have noticed the approaching train despite good visibility because he may have been trying to catch up with the first bus in the convoy, Szoke said in a telephone interview.
7) Reached later by telephone, Csillag attributed the confusion to what he described as a poor choice of words in the earlier statement.
8) Siofok police chief Tamas Herker confirmed Szoke's description, saying there had been a ``small van'' on the opposite side of the tracks when the bus approached.
9) Police also said the approaching train would have been visible for at least 400 meters (yards) before it reached the crossing.
10) State railway officials said the crossing signal was in working order when the bus started moving across the tracks as the train approached on its way from Budapest to Nagykanizsa in southern Hungary, near the Croatian border.
11) The crossing has no barriers, its flashing lights serving as the only warning of approaching trains. Gates or bars are rare at Hungarian railway crossings.
12) The collision occurred around 9 a.m. Thursday at a railroad crossing near the town of Siofok, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Budapest. The town is a popular tourist resort on Lake Balaton.
13) The train, which was partially derailed, dragged one section of the bus for more than 150 meters (yards).
14) Train traffic on the route affected by the crash was restarted Friday morning, after about 300 meters (yards) of damaged rails were replaced.
15) The German Federal Criminal Office sent five experts to Hungary to help Hungarian authorities with the process of identifying the German victims of the bus crash.
16) Two German survivors who were well enough to be transported were released from a Siofok hospital Friday afternoon and brought to Germany for further treatment, said Siofok Mayor Arpad Balazs. The other three survivors remained hospitalized in Hungary.
17) A memorial service for the victims of the crash was planned for Sunday, Balazs said.
18) From spring to fall, thousands of tourists visit the shores, hills and vineyards of Lake Balaton _ central Europe's largest lake. The water is rich in minerals and is reputed to have a therapeutic effect on bathers.
19) (pg/sl)


Victims' relatives visit scene of Hungarian bus crash
(APW_ENG_20030510.0121)
1) Weeping relatives of the victims of a collision between a tourist bus and a passenger train hugged each other as they visited the scene of the accident Saturday.
2) The crash Thursday killed a German bus driver and 32 mostly elderly German tourists. It occurred at a railway crossing near this town on Lake Balaton, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the capital, Budapest.
3) Five people _ four tourists and a Hungarian tour guide _ were injured, some seriously. Two of the injured tourists were flown back to Germany on Friday.
4) About 40 close relatives of the victims arrived Saturday at the railway crossing, after flying to Budapest from Germany on Friday evening.
5) The relatives lit candles and placed roses and other flowers at a makeshift shrine created by well-wishers just hours after the accident took place.
6) ``They are full of questions and want to know how this could have happened,'' said the Rev. Kai Gusek, a counselor from the German aid organization Notfallseelsorge. ``They want to know whether the driver was responsible or whether it could have been a technical problem with the bus.''
7) Authorities say the bus driver ignored warning lights and began to cross the tracks despite an approaching train in an attempt to catch up with another bus it was traveling with in a convoy.
8) The crossing has no barriers, its flashing lights serving as the only warning of approaching trains. Gates or bars are rare at Hungarian railway crossings.
9) A passenger express similar to the one involved in the accident passed Saturday morning as a group of relatives stood only a few meters (yards) from the crossing. Some of the relatives burst into tears, and counselors comforted them.
10) Others stood in a circle around the shrine with bowed heads as bells rang at a nearby church where a memorial service will be held for the dead on Sunday.
11) An advertisement sign for a local shop torn down in the accident lay toppled next to the track.
12) Before the 1989 fall of communism, Lake Balaton was popular among East and West Germans who used the site to meet friends and family from the other side of the Iron Curtain. The area remains very popular with German tourists.
13) Despite the shock caused by the accident _ one of the worst of its kind ever in Hungary _ Germans who stopped by the railroad crossing to pay their respects to the victims said they planned to return to Lake Balaton.
14) ``I'm terribly upset. We went over this railway crossing only half an hour before the accident happened, and we know it could have happened to us,'' said Richard Lamprecht, 81, from Kaiserslautern, Germany.
15) Though he didn't know any of the victims, Lamprecht felt affected by the accident. He took photographs of the scene and put flowers next to the tracks. With tears welling up in his eyes, he said he and his wife plan to continue their annual trips to Hungary.
16) ``It is very sad that they were mostly elderly people like us, it is really tragic,'' he said.
17) The bus was cut in two by the train, which traveled at a speed of about 100 kilometers an hour (60 mph). The train, which was partially derailed, dragged one section of the bus for more than 150 meters (yards).
18) The train engineer and one passenger suffered minor injuries.
19) Lake Balaton is central Europe's largest lake and a popular tourist destination from spring to fall. Thousands of visitors come here to enjoy the shores, hills and vineyards. The lake water is rich in minerals and is reputed to have a therapeutic effect on bathers.
20) (pg/sl)


German bus accident kills 28 on French highway
(APW_ENG_20030517.0299)
1) A sleek, double-decker German tour bus crashed through a guardrail on a rain-swept French highway, plunged down an embankment and flipped onto its roof early Saturday, killing 28 of the 74 people on board.
2) Ambulances and helicopters rushed injured passengers to hospitals. Some were in serious condition. A witness and a police officer said excess speed may have played a role in the crash.
3) French President Jacques Chirac immediately offered his ``sincere condolences'' to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
4) It was the second major deadly crash this month involving a bus loaded with German tourists. On May 8, a bus collided with train in the town of Siofok, Hungary, killing the German bus driver and 32 German tourists.
5) At least six of the injured in Saturday's accident were in serious condition, said Col. Serge Delaigue, the regional director of fire rescue services. The bus carried 72 passengers and two drivers.
6) One of the drivers was confirmed dead. Nearly all of the people aboard were believed to be Germans from several cities. The bus had taken on passengers in Cologne and Hanover.
7) At least some of them had won the trip as a prize in a contest in Germany.
8) ``It was really a catastrophic scene,'' said police Lt. Antoine Bompart. ``There were people crying and screaming everywhere.'' He said some passengers had been trapped in the wreckage.
9) Bompart said some witnesses recalled the driver braked to avoid a vehicle in front of him, and then lost control of the double-decker. The police lieutenant added it appeared the bus was traveling about 110 kilometers (68 miles) an hour, while the speed limit for that sort of vehicle in the rain is 90 kilometers (56 miles) an hour.
10) The accident north of the city of Lyon in Dardilly, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) southeast of Paris, happened at 5 a.m. (0400 GMT).
11) Witnesses and officials said the bus hit a guardrail, barreled down a grassy embankment and hit an electrical pole before flipping onto its roof. One witness told RTL radio that he thought the bus had been going too fast.
12) Its huge undercarriage and axles were twisted and bent by the force of the impact, while the roof was crushed.
13) ``We had to cut through the bus to remove the victims,'' Delaigue said on the French LCI television station.
14) The bus had been traveling all night, and regulations require that two drivers take turns at the wheel. The bus had toured throughout Germany and was headed toward Spain.
15) The pre-dawn crash comes during the French government's latest campaign to improve safety on its oft-criticized highways.
16) It was bound to raise questions about the risks posed by the thousands of tour buses that crisscross France and other European countries every day, often on overnight trips.
17) Tiger-Reisen, the bus owner, is based in a single-family home in the quiet Hanover suburb of Wunstorf. All the windows were shuttered Saturday afternoon and no one was answering the doorbell or phone calls.
18) One witness, Patrick Sirolli, told LCI that the bus was speeding down the highway when it flew out of control.
19) ``The bus was going fast. I said to myself, that's how you have accidents,'' he said, adding that the next moment the bus had flown out of control.
20) Highway traffic was temporarily halted as ambulances, rescue workers and firefighters rushed to the scene.
21) (parf-jc-kc-eg-kh)


Families of victims of German bus crash arrive in France
(APW_ENG_20030518.0322)
1) Family members of the 28 people who died when a German tour bus ran off a highway began arriving in southeastern France on Sunday to claim the bodies of their loved ones.
2) The grieving families gathered at a gymnasium near where the double-decker bus skidded of the road early Saturday, plunged down a grassy embankment and flipped onto its roof.
3) Only 18 of the 28 dead have been identified, officials said, adding that 19 people remained hospitalized, and five who were severely injured had been ``stabilized.''
4) The tour bus had left the German city of Hanover on Friday night and was headed toward Spain when the accident happened in Dardilly, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) southeast of Paris.
5) Investigators suspected excessive speed was to blame for the crash. The bus was going 117 kilometers (73 miles) per hour, while the speed limit was 90 kph (56 mph), French officials said. It was also raining heavily.
6) The results of alcohol tests conducted on the driver, who also died in the crash, were not yet known Sunday.
7) French Transport Minister Gilles de Robien said in an interview published Sunday that he was considering an investigation into the security of double-decker buses.
8) ``I propose a working group on that issue,'' de Robien was quoted as saying by the Le Parisien-dimanche newspaper.
9) It was the second major deadly crash this month involving a bus loaded with German tourists. On May 8, a bus collided with train in the town of Siofok, Hungary, killing the German bus driver and 32 German tourists.
10) French officials have said the bus carried 72 passengers and two drivers, but a spokesman for Lower Saxony state authorities in Germany, Klaus Engemann, said the passenger list shows 73 tourists and two drivers.
11) At least some of the passengers had won the trip as a prize in a contest in Germany.
12) (parf-jc)


Hungary to place barriers at dangerous railway crossings
(APW_ENG_20030602.0525)
1) More than 20 railway crossings in the Lake Balaton holiday resort area will be equipped with barriers to avoid a repeat of an accident last month that killed 33 Germans, a government minister said Monday.
2) The 20 barriers _ which include one at the crossing where a German tourist bus collided with a train last month _ are part of a program to equip 150 crossings with barriers over the next three years, said Istvan Csillag, the minister of industry.
3) ``The rate of accidents at railway crossings in Hungary is significantly higher than the average in the European Union,'' Csillag said, adding that 66 accidents involving vehicles and trains occurred at crossings last year alone.
4) Most accidents occurred despite flashing warning lights, he added.
5) In the May 8 accident near the resort town of Siofok, 32 German tourists and their bus driver died when their bus was sliced in half by a train. The crossing had no barrier.
6) An investigation into the accident is underway, but investigators believe the crossing's warning lights flashed red to warn of the approaching train.
7) Equipping the 150 crossings with barriers is estimated to cost 500 million forints (US$2.3 million) a year for three years.
8) (kpk/sl)


Train smashes into bus in Pakistan, killing at least 27, in one of worst accidents in years
(APW_ENG_20030920.0237)
1) A passenger train plowed into a packed bus driving over an unguarded railway crossing in central Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 27 passengers and injuring six others, officials said.
2) The country's main emergency relief agency, the Edhi Foundation, said 35 people were killed in the crash. However, Pakistan Railways, police and doctors said 27 died.
3) The crash _ one of the worst in recent years involving Pakistan's antiquated railways _ outraged area residents, who accused the government of ignoring their pleas to improve safety at the crossing despite two earlier accidents at the site.
4) The bus was torn to pieces when the train hit it at Malikwal town in Punjab province, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of Islamabad.
5) ``I saw blood and human parts scattered everywhere,'' local resident Javed Nawaz said. ``The bus looked like a skeleton.''
6) Dozens of residents tried to pull survivors from the wreckage, he said. Police came later and took away the dead and injured.
7) Pervez Ahmad, a doctor at Mandi Bhawaldin Hospital, said hundreds of people had gathered outside the hospital to identify bodies and pray for the injured.
8) The dead _ three children and 24 men _ and four of the injured were on the bus, he said. Two of those hurt were in critical condition. The two train engineers were both injured.
9) Malikwal police chief Waqar Haider said the railway crossing did not have a gate or lights to warn vehicles of oncoming trains.
10) Residents, and local police officer Mohammed Nadeem, said they had repeatedly urged Pakistan Railways to install a protective gate at the crossing _ but with no success.
11) Resident Mohammed Sabir said that a year ago a train smashed into a small truck at the crossing, killing two people.
12) ``Then we again contacted railway officials six months ago when another train hit a truck, wounding one person,'' he said. ``We wrote letters to the minister for railways about the danger we are facing but they took no notice.''
13) A spokesman for Pakistan Railways, Nasrullah Ghalzai, said he had no knowledge of earlier crashes at the site and insisted the department had not received complaint letters from residents.
14) He said Pakistan railways has ordered a probe to determine the cause of the crash.
15) Police officer Nadeem said the bus driver, who died in the accident, had apparently seen the train.
16) ``Some people have told us that the bus developed a fault while crossing the rail track and its driver could not alert passengers in time,'' he said.
17) The train was traveling between the towns of Lalamusa and Sargodha.
18) Pakistan's railway system is old and accidents are relatively common. In the last two years, hundreds of people have died in crashes. Critics accuse authorities of not spending enough money to maintain the system.
19) Pakistan's bloodiest train crash in recent years was in also in Punjab in 1997, when an express train's brakes failed and it jumped its tracks, crushing two coaches and killing 125 people and wounding 150. Twenty of the dead were children.


Three Germans killed in Hungary as train crashes into car
(APW_ENG_20040713.0355)
1) A passenger train and a car collided Tuesday at a railway crossing near Lake Balaton, killing three Germans, police said. No one on the train was injured.
2) A 68-year-old man, a 64-year-old woman and a girl died at the scene, said Veszprem County police spokeswoman Piroska Varadi. Another girl had been taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
3) Based on information gathered from the victims' passports, the couple appeared to be the grandparents of the children, Varadi said.
4) The two girls were aged 9 and 7. Their names were not released. Varadi said it was unclear which of the two children had been killed.
5) The accident happened in the town of Balatonederics, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Budapest, on the north coast of Lake Balaton, Hungary's most popular tourist destination.
6) Varadi told The Associated Press that there was a road sign but no barrier or light signal to indicate the railway crossing.
7) In May 2003, 32 German tourists and a driver were killed when their bus was hit by a train on a crossing in the lakeside town of Siofok. That crossing was equipped only with flashing light signals, and the government later promised to put up barriers at railway crossings around the Balaton, which is Europe's largest freshwater lake.
8) About half of Hungary's some 6,000 railway crossings are protected with barriers.


Train in Serbia nicks bus; no injuries reported
(APW_ENG_20050914.0990)
1) A train nicked a bus carrying a dozen passengers in central Serbia, but no injuries were reported, police said.
2) The accident occurred near the town of Jagodina, about 120 kilometers (72 miles) southeast of Belgrade while a passenger bus was crossing a railway.
3) None of the 12 passengers were injured, police said. The passengers were in the front of the bus and the train hit the rear, the official Tanjug news agency reported.
4) The train was traveling to neighboring Macedonia, in the south. The accident caused interruption of railway services.


Bus-train crash in Germany kills one, injures 8
(APW_ENG_20070703.0677)
1) A train hit a bus at a railway crossing in northeastern Germany on Tuesday, killing one woman and injuring eight other people, police said.
2) The accident happened near the town of Malchin, police in nearby Neubrandenburg said. The train hit the rear of the bus, which had 36 people on board.
3) The casualties were among the bus passengers; none of the 21 people on the train were injured. It was not immediately clear why the bus was still on the crossing when the train arrived.


Passenger train collides with double-decker bus in Argentina: 19 killed
(APW_ENG_20080309.0503)
1) A passenger train slammed into a double-decker bus at a rural Argentine rail crossing before dawn Sunday, killing 19 people and leaving at least 47 injured, authorities said.
2) The train was traveling from the Argentine capital to the South Atlantic beach resort of Mar del Plata when the collision occurred near Dolores, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires, the government news agency Telam said.
3) Police said 19 people died. Roberto Capiel, a public health official, told Telam that 47 people with injuries were taken to a local hospital for treatment. He said nine of the victims remained in critical condition.
4) Television footage showed wreckage of the overturned bus with its front windshield shattered and much of its roof sheered off. Crumpled bus seats, children's clothing, a baby bottle and beach chairs were left scattered across the railway line after the wreck, which took place at about 2 a.m. local time.
5) Bus passenger Cecilia Demarco told Noticias Argentinas that the bus "tried to beat the train" to the crossing, despite repeated warnings from the train as it sounded a horn. The account could not immediately be confirmed.
6) A Todo Noticias broadcast showed images of crushed motorcycle under the debris and said authorities reported that a woman waiting on a motorcycle at the crossing was among the dead.
7) A survivor on the train who identified himself only as Alejandro told the network he was preparing to go to sleep when the collision occurred.
8) "I heard this tremendous crash and everything shook" the witness said. "There were many screams and all of this in the dark."
9) Police said the bus, which was bound from the South Atlantic beach resort of Mar de Ajo to the capital, was carrying 61 passengers and two drivers.
10) Authorities said there were at least 30 serious injuries reported on the bus, and at least 15 train passengers and the two train drivers received minor injuries.
11) Buenos Aires provincial Gov. Daniel Scioli visited the crash site and said he was saddened by the "horrendous accident."
12) "It's just devastating, so tremendously sad. And to think there were families going on vacations is a disgrace," Scioli said.
13) Authorities said the train's drivers told investigators that the crossing barriers were down when the bus unexpectedly tried to cross the tracks ahead of the train.
14) As Scioli watched bulldozers prepare to push away twist rail ties and other debris, he promised an exhaustive investigation.


11 dead in Romania after bus collides with train
(APW_ENG_20090814.0528)
1) A train slammed into a bus Friday at a crossing in northeastern Romania, killing at least 11 people and injuring four others, officials said.
2) The bus appeared to have ignored signals at the crossing in the village of Scanteia, emergency official Raed Arafat said. The crossing had no barriers, Arafat said.
3) Ten bus passengers died immediately after impact and another died later, he said.
4) The collision occurred near the Scanteia railway station. There were no reports of injuries to train passengers.
5) Police said the accident was caused by the driver because he crossed the line when the signal warned him a train was coming. It was not immediately clear if the bus driver was among the dead.
6) The train was traveling at about 50 mph (80 kph) and was headed to the northeastern city of Iasi, emergency official Tudor Ciuhodaru said. Rescue officials were cutting people from the bus, news reports said, but it wasn't immediately clear if that meant bodies or more injured passengers.
7) About 30 people had died in similar accidents at crossings in 2008, and seven had died this year before Friday's crash, said Ion Garoseanu, who heads the Romanian National Railways, CFR.
8) Some crossings do not have signals or barriers. Others have short barriers, meaning cars and other vehicles are able to take a risk and snake between and cross the tracks.
9) An American acting coach and her teenage daughter were killed in a similar accident in 2004 when a train slammed into their car as they were crossing a railway line just north of the capital.