Atracomulco, Mexico (AP) — A freight train cut a two-storey bus in half on a northwest of Mexico City on Monday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 55 people, authorities said.
The accident occurred in the industrial area of warehouses and factories in the town of Atlacomulco, about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of the Mexican capital.
Mexico’s civil defense agency told X that authorities were still working at the site of the accident, and that the state prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation. The bus from the Herradura de Plata line was torn apart by a collision.
Authorities said 10 people were killed and 55 were injured. Local media reports said the injured were taken to hospitals throughout the state.
The bus company did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The rail line, Canada’s Pacific, Mexico, Canada, confirmed the accident and sent the sad dol to the victim’s family. Canada-based Calgary said its personnel are on the scene and is working with authorities.
Authorities did not immediately provide details on how the accident occurred, but one video spread across social platforms, showing the bus in a massive amount of traffic as a fast moving train suddenly emerged from the frame, slowly moving along the train tracks and crashing into the bus at the midpoint.
The train was moved to lower the bus to the truck and removed it from the frame. The front half rested in conflicting traffic lanes next to the intersection.
Witnesses had no visible crossing gates or other stops, the witness said.
But just before 7am, 33-year-old Miguel Sanchez said he had heard the trains blow in front of the intersection all the time. Sanchez works at a service station about 100 yards (meters) away.
The car continued to cross the truck heading towards the crash. The train then barreled onto the bus.
Cars going in the other direction stopped crossing the truck as the bus drove, but the motorcycle scooped seconds before the crash. The train collided with the passenger side of the bus.
“We heard the crash. We thought it was just a car. We didn’t think it was a bus that so many people were on,” Sanchez said.
Another video showed the bus stationary on the side of the truck. The bus roof was gone and people could see them moving at the top level as the trains slowed down until the trains stopped.
Women can be heard crying, “Help me, help me.” Shortly afterwards, ambulance floods arrived on the scene, Sanchez said.
Rebekah Miranda was waiting beside the truck Monday to let authorities know what would happen with the victim’s body. Her sister and her sister’s stepdaughter were on the bus when she was attacked around 6:30am, she said.
Her sister was taken to the hospital and was able to speak, but the other woman died in an accident, Miranda said. They were both domestic workers. Miranda said she couldn’t be with her hospital sister because she needed to know what would be done with the other women’s bodies.
Miranda said the bus should not have crossed the tracks just as the trains were passing through the intersection. “That’s really a shame. Why? Why do you hit the train? They’re life.”
According to the latest report from the Mexican Railway Traffic Control Agency released in September, accidents at grade-level intersections are the most common and have been on the upward trend in recent years.
Last year there were 800 compared to 602 in 2020, the report said. The document did not include the number of victims involved in the accident.
Six people were killed last month when the train struck several vehicles in Guanafuato. In 2019, nine people were killed when a freight train attacked a passenger bus crossing the central state tracks in Queretaro.
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Mexican Fabiola Sanchez, Megan Janetsky and Maria Verza contributed to this report.
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