Congo Train Derailment
Posted: 11 Sep 2007, 12:02
A passenger train derailed in central Congo late on 2 Augustt, killing about 100 people and trapping some passengers in the wreckage.
The accident occurred after the brakes failed as the train traveled near Benaleka, between the city of Ilebo and the provincial capital of Kananga,. Seven cars overturned and an eighth went partly off the tracks just before midnight, about 100 miles northwest of Kananga. The conductor was able to detach the locomotive and go for help.
Rescue workers had pulled at least 70 bodies out of the wreckage by late
Injured passengers were being carried on people’s backs and on bicycles to a hospital six miles away.
The accident “resulted in a heavy toll of about 100 dead,†said a government spokesman.
Dozens of people were injured, but officials did not provide a specific figure or give any details of how seriously they were hurt.
Roads and rail lines are seriously dilapidated in Congo, a country the size of Western Europe - most of Congo’s railroads were built more than 100 years ago, when the country was a Belgian colony.
The accident occurred after the brakes failed as the train traveled near Benaleka, between the city of Ilebo and the provincial capital of Kananga,. Seven cars overturned and an eighth went partly off the tracks just before midnight, about 100 miles northwest of Kananga. The conductor was able to detach the locomotive and go for help.
Rescue workers had pulled at least 70 bodies out of the wreckage by late
Injured passengers were being carried on people’s backs and on bicycles to a hospital six miles away.
The accident “resulted in a heavy toll of about 100 dead,†said a government spokesman.
Dozens of people were injured, but officials did not provide a specific figure or give any details of how seriously they were hurt.
Roads and rail lines are seriously dilapidated in Congo, a country the size of Western Europe - most of Congo’s railroads were built more than 100 years ago, when the country was a Belgian colony.