Mashhad-Yazd train accident: Death toll rises from 22 to 14

In its first official announcement, the Iranian Railway Accident Commission attributed the accident to the driver exceeding the speed limit and the blocking of the Mashhad-Yazd train route by an excavator. Railway officials have not yet taken responsibility for the negligence.

The Supreme Commission for Railway Accidents issued its first official statement on the causes of the accident four days after the Mashhad-Yazd passenger train derailed. The statement attributed the incident to two human errors: an excavator blocking the train's path and the driver exceeding the speed limit.

The relevant commission says that in examining field evidence and documentation such as recorded conversations of officers, events recorded in electrical signaling systems, data records in locomotives and stations, and investigation of employees, it has been determined that the line operations supervisor at the improvement site was negligent: "... The line operations supervisor at the improvement site, without any prior coordination with the control and stations of the parties, and in order to carry out excavator repairs, ordered the excavator driver to place the excavator boom inside the line..."

The announcement states that upon seeing the excavator, the train driver blew a warning whistle and applied the brakes, but due to the close distance, the upper part of the locomotive collided with the rotating excavator boom; an incident that, due to the train's excessive speed, led to the overturning of the second, third, and fourth carriages and the derailment of carriages 5 to 8.

The Supreme Commission for Railway Accidents has stated that the identification of other causes and factors is under investigation.

The CEO of the railway had previously reported that the locomotive was speeding and that the excavator driver had tested positive for sobriety and was arrested. He did not specify what the sobriety test meant, but some reports have pointed to the excavator driver's addiction.

At the same time, the head of the parliamentary civil engineering commission told ILNA news agency that if the excavator driver's addiction is true, the railway company will be held responsible for the incident and oversight negligence. He added that the locomotive was also traveling at 120 kilometers per hour instead of the permitted speed of 30 kilometers.

According to the Chief Justice of South Khorasan, a total of six people have been arrested in connection with the passenger train accident.

In the latest news, while the number of victims of this incident was announced as 22, the Director General of Forensic Medicine in Yazd stated that the final and definitive figure was 14. Fariborz Ayati said on Sunday, June 12, that the identification of the bodies had been completed and that the previous figures were based on the covers containing the body parts.

Ali Akbar Azizi, the deputy governor of Yazd for political, security and social affairs, also explained the decrease in the death toll in the accident, saying: "The bodies of some of the victims were dismembered due to the severity of the impact. The teams present at the scene had collected the body parts in 22 covers for identification, but they could not be identified."

He emphasized that after the bodies were transferred to the province, forensic examinations were conducted, and the number of missing persons was announced, the final death toll was 14, 2 of whom were from Tabas and 12 from Yazd.

Source: DW