Five railway workers died after being hit by a train during overnight maintenance on a track in northern Italy, prompting shock and outrage.
The train, which was transporting empty carriages on the Milan-Turin line, was reportedly traveling at 160kph when it struck the team replacing parts of the track near Brandizzo, on the outskirts of Turin.
RFI, the company which manages Italy’s rail network, confirmed five maintenance workers employed by an external contractor had died after a train “not in commercial service” hit them shortly before midnight.
Photo: Reuters
In a statement, it expressed its “deep sorrow” at the deaths of the workers and offered condolences to their families, adding that investigations into the incident were under way.
The fire service confirmed that “five workers were killed by a passing train” and two others were injured. Media reports suggest the pair who escaped, including the foreman, were physically unharmed, but under observation.
The bodies of the men who died, aged 22 to 52 or 53 years old, were said to have been dragged for several meters.
The train driver, one of two people in the engine cab, was unharmed, but in shock, Italian news agencies said.
Brandizzo Mayor Paolo Bodoni said an emergency worker had described to him a “chilling scene, with human remains across 300m.”
“It’s a huge tragedy,” he told the AGI news agency.
“It cannot be excluded that there could have been a communication error,” he said, but said that would be a matter for investigations.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offered her “deepest condolences” to the men’s families and said she was closely following the case, “with the hope of shedding light on what happened as soon as possible.”
Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party, also lamented a “terrible tragedy.”
“The rule is that works on the tracks can begin when it is confirmed that there are no trains on the line,” he said.
“Prosecutors and technicians are investigating how such a dramatic accident could have happened last night,” he added.
Luigi Sbarra, the head of one of Italy’s biggest trade unions, CISL, said he was left “stunned” by the accident.
“Five workers died, five families... destroyed due to the failure to apply safety measures,” he said.
“It is yet another tragedy that outrages all Italian workers,” he said.
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