Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi stated during a press conference that the train was stopping as it entered the station, but “it did not stop,” and assured that “we have enough material” to determine the causes of the accident.
Schiavi sent his condolences to the victims’ families and also thanked the Federal Police, fire-fighters and members of health organizations that worked at the area, “it would have been worse without them.”
The Transport Secretary highlighted the fact that the engine driver is a young man, who was not tired and had begun to drive the train from the Caseros station.
He mentioned during the press conference that every train counts with a GPS system which details the speed and station. This helped to determine that the train’s speed reached 27 kilometres when it was 300 metres away from the station, it went down to 20 when it was 40 metres from the station, “but we don’t know what happened in the last 40 metres.”
Schiavi also stated that the first three carriages were carrying more passengers than it should.
Regarding the case, he said that Judge Claudio Bonadío is in charge of it and that the secretariat will present the tape of the train’s camera and the one that is on the station to determine the causes of the accident.
The Transport Secretary confirmed that 49 passengers died and 461 of the injured remain hospitalized in the crash and assured that they will find out “who is responsible for this accident and which were the causes.”
Source: Buenos Aires Herald