Around 100 People Injured in Train Accident, Two in Critical Condition

Bratislava, 13 October (TASR) - Around 100 people sustained minor injuries and two are in critical condition following the express train collision that took place near the village of Jablonov nad Turnou in the district of Roznava (Kosice region) on Monday, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) told a press conference on the same day, adding there were no fatalities according to initial reports. Three people remain trapped, with no information yet available about their condition. According to the minister, the accident was apparently caused by human error, with one of the train drivers most likely failing to give way to the other. "At this point, I don't want to speculate about the causes, but according to initial information, it wasn't a system failure, but a case of human error. It seems one of the train drivers made a mistake and probably didn't give way to the other train, but this is still only a preliminary version," said Sutaj Estok, adding that he himself, Transport Minister Jozef Raz (a Smer-SD nominee) and Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) are heading to the site of the accident. The collision between the two express trains took place shortly after 10 a.m. near a tunnel in the vicinity of the village of Jablonov nad Turnou, at a point where tracks intersect and merge into a single track. Firefighters, police, and paramedics are all on the scene. "We've dispatched two rescue helicopters and six ground ambulances to the site,” said Petra Klimesova, spokesperson for the Slovak Emergency Medical Services Operations Centre. jrg/df