In the city of Arad (northwestern Romania), a tram left the depot on its own and hit another tram and two cars. Six passengers ended up in hospital, Digi 24 TV reported this morning, quoted by BTA.
The incident occurred yesterday afternoon, and police and representatives of the public transport company are investigating the causes of the incident. The tram left on its own without a guardrail, hitting another train that was at a stop and two cars.
A witness to the incident said that as far as she understood, the guardrail had climbed onto the roof to fix something and the tram left without him. Another witness to the incident said that there was an interruption, and after the power supply was restored, the tram started on its own, gained speed, hit two cars and another tram and stopped at the stop.
An inspector at the scene of the incident indicated that a commission would be formed to establish what happened. The tram had traveled about 500 meters without a Whatman until the moment of impact.
“I felt a blow from behind, but the first impression was that it was not a blow, but that something had fallen on the tram“, said a passenger from the hit vehicle.
Another passenger told how he was injured, how a woman fell to the ground and added that “luckily“ many of the people had already gotten off at the stop when the tram was hit by the other.
A spokesman for the Arad County Emergency Hospital said the injured passengers were conscious, stable and undergoing medical examinations.
The Arad public transport company has launched an internal investigation to determine both the technical condition of the train and the circumstances surrounding the incident, the company's chief operating officer, Monica Birau, said. Police are also investigating the case, with one hypothesis being that the driver accidentally pressed the start button when he got off the tram to deal with the problem.