When I Was Young

June 30, 2009 -- Updated 2016 GMT (0416 HKT)

Story Highlights

• Blast levels about a dozen homes and buildings, officials say
  
• Train, carrying gas tanks, derails while passing through station in coastal town
  
• At least 36 people injured, most of them burned; 16 in critical condition
  
• "If someone thinks that the danger phase is over, it is not so," official says
  

Firefighters check a wrecked freight train in Italy after gas tankers exploded.

(CNN) -- A rail car filled with liquefied petroleum gas exploded and started a fire in a residential neighborhood in the Italian seaside town of Viareggio, killing at least 14 people and collapsing about a dozen homes and buildings, authorities said Tuesday.

The explosion happened just before midnight Monday when a tanker in a 14-car cargo train sprung a leak and derailed, spilling its hazardous liquid into the streets and alongside buildings. Four other tank cars also left the track and overturned, leaving nine upright, authorities said.

Two children were among those severely burned, said Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency. Many residents were asleep at the time of the blast.

At least 36 people were injured, most of them burned. Among those, 16 were in critical condition. Four people were reported missing.

iReporter Leonardo Gasparetti says he heard a sound like thunder and saw rising flames.

"I heard the explosion and I went out into the street to find myself faced with flames and a motionless, charred body lying on the ground," a witness told the Italian news agency ANSA.

"It was a terrifying scene which I will never forget," added the witness, who works at a nearby pharmaceutical company. "We couldn't do anything for the body except cover it up."

Another witness said a young girl riding by on a scooter was caught in the blast, and threw herself on the ground to put out her burning clothes.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi planned to visit Viareggio later Tuesday.

Firefighters could be seen trudging through high piles of smoking rubble. The husks of charred cars lined narrow streets.

"If someone thinks that the danger phase is over, it is not so," Bertolaso said.

"The search and rescue operations are not over and will not be over before this evening," Bertolaso said. Not all the victims have been identified, because of their severe burns.

iReporter Leonardo Gasparetti says he heard a sound like thunder and saw rising flames.

Flames engulf cars near Viareggio railway station in western Italy on Monday.

The train, which was hauling nine tanker cars through a station, was traveling from La Spezia to Pisa, Antonio Garufi, a local government official, said.

Minister of Transportation Altero Matteoli opened an investigation into the accident. He said he wants to see whether any rules for the safe transportation of dangerous cargo were breached, or whether there are insufficient regulations.

Matteoli will present a report on the findings to the Italian parliament.

Mauro Moretti, chairman of Italian Railways, told television media Tuesday that one of the wagon locks may have malfunctioned. He said the train conductor didn't appear at fault. He was driving the train at the average speed of 90 kilometers per hour, Moretti said.

Francesco Tardini, an assistant to Viareggio's mayor, said she was at home with her family when the incident occurred.

"First I heard three explosions and then I saw the fire and the big flames," she said, adding that she could see the fire from her home, which is 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the train station.

Authorities have called the accident one of Italy's worst rail tragedies.

CNN's Hada Messia in Rome contributed to this report.

From CNN.com; see the source article here.

06/24/2009 | 07:54 AM

WASHINGTON – Investigators looking into the deadly crash of two Metro transit trains focused Tuesday on why a computerized system failed to halt an oncoming train, and why the train failed to stop even though the emergency brake was pressed.

At the time of the crash, the train was also operating in automatic mode, meaning it was controlled primarily by computer. In that mode, the operator's main job is to open and close the doors and respond in case of an emergency.

Debbie Hersman, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said it was unclear if the emergency brake was actually engaged when Monday's crash occurred. But the mushroom-shaped button that activates it was found pushed down in the operator's compartment.

Hersman said it wasn't clear when the button was pressed or how it got that way. She also said there was evidence of braking on the train's rotors, indicating it was likely that the operator tried to slow down.

The train plowed into a stopped train ahead of it at the height of the Monday evening rush hour, killing nine people and injuring more than 70. It was the deadliest accident in the 30-year history of the Metro.

Crews spent Tuesday pulling apart the trains' wreckage and searching for victims' bodies. And authorities worked to determine why the train's safeguards apparently did not kick in.

"That train was never supposed to get closer than 1,200 feet, period," said Jackie Jeter, president of a union that represents Metro workers.

All Metro trains were running on manual control as a precaution against computer malfunction.

The cars in the moving train were some of the oldest in the transit network, dating to the founding of the Metro system.

Federal officials had sought to phase out the aging fleet because of safety concerns, but the transit system kept the old trains running, saying it lacked money for new cars.

Hersman told The Associated Press that the NTSB had warned in 2006 that the old fleet should be replaced or retrofitted to make it better able to survive a crash.

Neither was done, she said, which the NTSB considered "unacceptable."

Metro General Manager John Catoe said the agency expected to receive proposals "over the next month or so" to replace the old cars, but new trains were still years away from being installed. He insisted the existing cars were safe.

This isn't the first time that Metro's automated system has been called into question.

In June 2005, Metro experienced a close call because of signal troubles in a tunnel under the Potomac River. A train operator noticed he was getting too close to the train ahead of him even though the system indicated the track was clear. He hit the emergency brake in time, as did the operator of another train behind him.

Shortly after that incident, Metro attributed the problem to a defective communications cable.

The signal relays that control trains were replaced after a serious safety warning in May 2000 by the Federal Railroad Administration. The warning came after failed relays were detected on the system, formally known as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

The operator of the train that barreled into the stopped cars Monday was identified as Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va., according to Metro officials.

McMillan was hired in March 2007 as a bus driver and was tapped to become a train operator in December. Metro officials say employees start out as bus drivers before moving to trains.

Investigators want McMillan's cell phone and texting records to determine whether she was distracted before the crash, Hersman said.

Safety officials also are investigating a passenger's statement that the train had stopped briefly then started again before the crash.

Iyesha Thomas, a Metro employee who worked with McMillan, said McMillan would often work the late shift. She did not have a car and if she was unable to get a ride home, she would sleep at Metro's offices, take the first train to Franconia, Va., and return to work later that day.

A neighbor, Aicha Mezlini, said McMillan was killed driving the first train on her 4 p.m.-to-11 p.m. shift. She said McMillan normally worked Tuesday and Wednesday, but last week Metro changed her shift to Monday.

"There is no evidence whatsoever that this driver has done anything to cause this accident," Catoe said Tuesday.

The crash occurred on the red line near the D.C. and Maryland border, in an area where higher train speeds are common because there is a longer distance between stops. Trains can go 55 to 59 mph, though it was not clear how fast the train that crashed was traveling.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, emergency crews cut away the top of the train that jackknifed on top of a stopped train. They removed the debris with help from a crane brought in overnight.

"The scene that I witnessed was one that no one should have to see," Catoe said. "It was unbelievable destruction."

Later, his voice choked with emotion as he addressed hundreds of employees at a prayer vigil Tuesday. He told them the agency will find out what caused the accident and develop a solution.

"We cannot afford to lose any more of our own, or any more of our customers," Catoe said. "I need your prayers. This agency needs your prayers."

Metro has long pleaded for more funding to ensure the system's safety. The transit network is supported by the District of Columbia, Maryland and the Virginia jurisdictions that it serves. However, unlike other major systems, Metro has no dedicated funding source.

Metro officials have long argued that the federal government should contribute because the trains serve the capital, and some 40 percent of rush-hour riders are federal workers.

Catoe said last year it would take $7 billion just to maintain current service and keep the system running safely and reliably from 2010 to 2020. That includes replacements for aging rail cars.

It would take billions more, he said, to deploy longer trains and more buses to meet the projected increase in demand. The number of trips taken on Metro trains is expected to grow 22 percent to about 1 million a day by 2020.

Some passengers involved in Monday's crash returned to the site Tuesday to get another look at the destruction.

Jamie Jiao, 20, of Vienna, Va., said he was aboard the first car of the moving train just a few feet from where the car was smashed.

"It was only a split second," he said. "We were probably traveling pretty fast. No one had time to react."

Jiao had two bandages on his face, and his foot was in a splint. He was walking with a cane and complained of aches in his back. "I'm thankful it isn't more serious," he said.

Tijuana Cox, 21, was in the train that was hit. She had her sprained arm in a sling Tuesday.

"Everybody just went forward and came back," with people's knees hitting the seats in front of them, said Cox, of Lanham, Md.

The only other fatal crash in the Metro subway system occurred Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment. That was a day of disaster in the capital: Shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff from Washington National Airport. The plane crash, during a severe snowstorm, killed 78 people.

In January 2007, a subway train derailed in downtown Washington, sending 20 people to the hospital and requiring the rescue of 60 others from the tunnel.

In November 2006, two Metro track workers were struck and killed by an out-of-service train. An investigation found that the train operator failed to follow safety procedures. Another Metro worker was struck and killed in May 2006. - AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.