Beijing metro train collision sends hundreds to hospital
By Simone McCarthy, CNN
Hong Kong (CNN) — Hundreds of commuters, dozens of them with fractured bones, were sent to the hospital in Beijing on Thursday after two trains collided on a busy metro line during snowy conditions, the city’s transportation authority said.
The collision took place around 7 p.m. during rush hour on the Changping subway line extending to the northwest of the Chinese capital. According to a preliminary investigation, it was caused by a malfunction related to signal and emergency braking due to weather conditions, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport said in a statement Friday.
One train came to an emergency stop due to slippery tracks in the snow, and another following behind crashed into it, the statement said. “The latter train was in a downhill section, and the snowy weather caused it to slide and failed to brake effectively, causing a rear-end collision with the one in front,” it said.
A total of 515 people were taken to the hospital for examination, with 102 of them found to have fractures, the agency said. No one died in the incident, it said.
As of 6 a.m. Friday, 423 people had left the hospital, according to the statement.
In a statement Thursday evening, the city’s subway operator cited preliminary information that two end carriages had detached from one train, injuring passengers.
Videos filmed by witnesses and circulating on social media appeared to show separated train cars. In one video, a passenger exclaimed: “The subway train I took broke into two parts!”
The incident took place on an above-ground section of the subway. The line typically handles nearly 400,000 passenger trips on a weekday, according to state media.
Beijing Transport apologized for the incident, saying it would investigate and make any necessary fixes to avoid similar incidents in the future.
The collision occurred as Beijing and northern China have shivered under a cold snap and snowfall since Wednesday, with transport impacted and schools closed.
On Thursday evening, the city was under an orange alert for heavy snow and a yellow alert for icy roads.
China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe alert, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
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CNN’s Martha Zhou and Nectar Gan contributed reporting.
