Fatal rail crash in Greece - 3 dead, many injured - 13 May 2017

[whole diary]

[broadgage]

At least two lives said to be lost as a train in Greece derails and strikes a house.
It is not clear if the fatalities were on the train or in the house.
One report states that a child escaped by jumping from the balcony of the house.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39912678

Very sad, I am sure that our thoughts are with those injured or bereaved.

[broadgage]

The scale of the destruction to what appears to be a solidly built concrete house and substantial looking OHLE^▸ (Over-Head Line Equipment (electrification via catenary)) suggests a substantial speed.
This is not to suggest in any way that EXCESSIVE speed was involved, it may be that the permitted speed is relatively high. The apparently high quality track suggests a fast main line.

[Chris from Nailsea]

An update, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Greece train hits house after derailing, killing three


The train wrecked a house as it derailed near the village of Adendro in Northern Greece

Three people have been killed and many more seriously injured after a passenger train derailed in northern Greece, officials say.

The train, travelling from Athens, struck a house when it left the track near the city of Thessaloniki.

A resident at the property said he had managed to jump from a balcony just before the train made impact.

Pictures from the town of Adendro showed smashed carriages. It is unclear what caused the train to derail.

The victims have yet to be formally identified but local media is reporting that one passenger died in the crash along with two members of staff.

All five carriages of the express train left the track in the incident. The driver is among those injured.

The train was carrying 70 passengers, most of whom were safely evacuated within three hours of the accident on Saturday night, according to reports.


All five carriages left the track, killing three and injuring many more


A resident at the property struck by the train jumped from the balcony moments before impact


The train was carrying 70 passengers when the accident happened on Saturday

The accident happened some 40km (25 miles) from Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city.

A senior national railway official who visited the crash site said there had been no reports of problems on that stretch of railway before the incident, AFP news agency reports.

Police said that the cause of the crash had yet to be determined. The state-owned railway company Trainose said it had opened an investigation.

[Bmblbzzz]

The scale of the destruction to what appears to be a solidly built concrete house and substantial looking OHLE^▸ (Over-Head Line Equipment (electrification via catenary)) suggests a substantial speed.
This is not to suggest in any way that EXCESSIVE speed was involved, it may be that the permitted speed is relatively high. The apparently high quality track suggests a fast main line.

A car weighing one or two tons will easily go through the wall of a house at 50mph or so. I expect several hundred tons of train can demolish a house at much lower speed. Which isn't to say the train was going slowly either; it must have had some speed in order to slide that far from the track.