2 Dead in Collision Between Truck and Passenger Train in Northern Estonia
Two people died and 12 were injured after a passenger train heading from Tallinn to Tartu collided with a truck at a crossing in Harju County.
The truck drove into the side of the train at Raasiku crossing at 15:19, uudised.err.ee said. The train was the 14:55 service operated by Elron,
One of the fatalities was a 43-year-old woman on the train and the other was the truck driver, a 59-year-old man.
Seven people were hospitalized, with non-life-threatening injuries, according to a police spokesperson.
ETV's Marju Kaasik reported that the specific reason was not yet known, but the crossing is considered dangerous.
"The last accident with a fatality was here a year ago. The lights are more than 30 years old and residents have asked repeatedly that they be replaced. It's hard to say whether that the case. The sun was shining from behind the truck driver, so it couldn't have blinded him."
There were an estimated 100 people riding the train. Two of the cars derailed.
Although truck-train collisions at level-grade crossings were common for many years, a public safety campaign was mounted by Estonian Railway and NGOs, and fatalities had dropped. Injuries and deaths among train passengers have been exceedingly rare.
A criminal investigation has been opened, uudised.err.ee reported.
Wednesday evening's Tartu-Tallinn express train was canceled and this morning's electric trains to Aegviidu from Tartu were canceled and replaced by buses.