A freak morning accident in San Rafael de Alajuela resulted in two dead when a train flat car breaks off from the locomotive, hits and drags a small passenger vehicle. A third person, a pedestrian, is in hospital in serious condition.
The flat train car was carrying some 100 concrete rail ties, each weighing about 300 kgs or that is 30 tonnes, at the time of the incident, occurring at 8:04 am this Tuesday morning, confirmed the Cruz Roja and Bomberos (Red Cross and Fire Department).
According to witnesses, the locomotive was moving from San Antonio de Belen to La Guacima when, for reasons unknown, the flat car broke from the locomotive, free rolling down a slope.
“We are doing reconstruction work on the railroad in San Rafael de Alajuela, we have been there for over a month…it seems during one of the maneuvers the locomotive was performing one the cars broke off on a slope causing the unfortunate accident,” explained Maria Fernanda Arias, spokesperson for the Incofer, the Costa Rican railway.
Authorities on the scene said the flat car broke off some 400 meters from the Cruz Roja de San Rafael de Alajuela and rolling down the tracks it hits the Hyundai Accent in which the couple where traveling, dragging it some 400 meters.
The flat car never left the track, it was slowed down to a stop by the mangled wreckage of the vehicle.
The identity of the victims was not made known to the press. Authorities would only say it was an elderly couple from Desamparados, in of San Jose.
The pedestrian injured was identified as 40-year-old Cristian Rojas Castro, who was taken to the San Rafael de Alajuela hospital.
Source: La Nacion
