Serbia - 16 killed in Novi Sad railway station roof collapse - 1 November 2024

[whole diary]

[broadgage]

An external canopy roof has collapsed leaving 13 dead and others injured.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wrp7g05xro

Initial reports do not suggest any likely cause of the accident, no mention of severe weather, or of a vehicle impact, or of any form of attack.

Very sad.

Later reports may contain more, or more accurate details.t

[broadgage]

Later reports put the number of fatalities at 14. No word on the suspected cause. Images of the immediate aftermath suggest that the fallen roof was of substantial concrete construction and was cantilevered out from the wall of the main building, rather than being supported by vertical columns.
Looks as though the fixings between the roof and the wall failed.

Very sad.

[ChrisB]

It had just been refurbished....I'd start there I think

[stuving]

From the reports, the refurbishment or renovation did not include the canopy. Indeed, I don't thinks that is something you can do to old concrete structures, other than a pressure wash and a repaint.

The canopy in question was not (or not just) cantilevered from above the entrance. It was suspended from the main roof's forward projection, apparently by steel tubes as tension members. In the failure, these pulled out from the upper roof. You would hope that those attachments got inspected from time to time, and a renovation would be the obvious time to do it -  it would be a big job is itself. Here is a recent picture:

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Anger lingers in Serbia a year after train station tragedy

A sea of people flowed along the roads leading up to Novi Sad railway station.

They came in their tens of thousands to remember the 16 people who died there this time last year, on another unseasonably warm and sunny autumn day.

The victims were standing or sitting underneath a concrete canopy at the recently-renovated facility, when it collapsed. The two youngest were just six years old, the oldest, 77.

Regular protests have rocked Serbia in the 12 months that have followed. But on Saturday morning, the huge crowd participated in an event that put the emphasis on quiet commemoration.

At 11:52 (10:52 GMT), the time of the disaster, they observed a silence for 16 minutes - one for each of the victims. Family members cried. One woman needed to be physically supported by men wearing the red berets of armed forces veterans.

After the silence, relatives laid flowers at the front of the station.

The rubble of the collapsed canopy has been cleared away, but otherwise the building appears to have remained untouched since the disaster. Twisted metal protruding from the walls and broken glass still offer evidence of the catastrophe.

Novi Sad station was supposed to be a symbol of Serbia's progress, under President Aleksandar Vučić's Progressive Party. The country's second city would be a key stop on the high-speed railway line whipping passengers from Belgrade to Budapest in less than three hours.

Vučić and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban jointly opened the renovated facility in 2022. Its angular, Yugoslav-era form had been upgraded as part of the high-speed project.

But now, after another renovation and the disaster that followed, the station stands as the prime example of everything that is wrong in Serbia.

...

In September, 13 people, including former construction, infrastructure and Transport Minister Goran Vesić, were charged in a criminal case over the collapse.


(BBC article continues)