Scenes of horror after rail disaster

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33628, 2 September 1974, Page 13

Scenes of horror after rail disaster

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) ZAGREB (Jugoslavia), September 1. The Belgrade-Munich express was travelling at almost twice its permitted speed just before it jumped the rails at Zagreb station, killing more than 100 passengers and injuring hundreds of others. A member of the investigating committee says that the train went through a red signal light on its approach to the station, and that the engine’s “black box” speed-recorder showed that it was then moving at more than 55 miles an hour.

The driver of the train, his mate, and two station officials are in custody. According to a member of the committee of inquiry, bloodalcohol tests on the two engine crew-members have proved negative.

The precise toll of the disaster, one of the worst rail accidents in recent European history, has still not been established beyond doubt. Dr Tode Curuvija, VicePresident of the Croatian Parliament, told a press conference last night that it was expected to total between 120 and 150. Other estimates have put the final count as high as 170. According to a member of the committee of inquiry, many bodies were mutilated to such an extent that positive identification of more than 30 per cent of the victims seems unlikely. Most of the victims were killed outright when all

eight carriages of the holiday relief train left the rails. Others died after being taken to hospitals in Zagreb.

The locomotive remained on the rails and is said to have travelled several hundred yards before it could be halted.

The train was carrying about 400 migrant workers, mostly Jugoslavs, and their families, who were returning from holidays to their places of work in West Germany. The passengers also included a number of Turkish and Greek nationals, but there has been no confirmation of reports that several West Germans were killed. Relatives of victims from throughout Jugoslavia have arrived in the Croatian capital to help the authorities with the task of trying to identify the victims. Eye-witnesses yesterday recounted scenes of horror after the crash: bodies, severed limbs, and badly-injured victims were strewn along several hundred yards of the track. Mr Peter Markovic, a student, aged 24, who lives near the scene of the disaster, said that he saw one woman, both her legs severed above the knees, crawling away from the twisted wreckage of a carriage, moaning in agony. A group of Jugoslav jour-

nalists said that they saw a teen-age boy shouting: “This is my sister!” He seized an arm protruding from beneath an overturned carriage, and fainted in horror as he was left holding a severed hand.

The victims’ remains were taken to three improvised mortuaries in the city, and at the medical school of Zagreb University, 20 children’s bodies, many mutilated beyond recognition, are awaiting identification today.