HUNGARY: A passenger train sliced through a coach full of mainly elderly German holidaymakers in Hungary yesterday, killing 32 of them and their driver.
The Budapest to Nagykanizsa train hit the coach around 8:35 a.m. local time at a level crossing near Siofok on Lake Balaton, Hungary's leading tourist area, echoing a similar tragedy at the same place 21 years ago.
The head of the local disaster unit, Mr Gyorgy Heizler, said the coach driver had failed to heed red stop lights. The crossing, like many in Hungary, has no safety barriers.
"The train, which was going full speed, practically sliced the bus in two and flattened one half, pushing it around 200 metres down the track," he told a news conference.
Twenty-nine of the day-trippers died at the scene and four in hospital. The other five passengers were injured, three of them seriously.
Parts of one passenger's body were found among twisted metal from the coach that was wrapped around the front of the train.
Hungary's national railway chief, Mr Zoltan Mandoki, told reporters at the scene: "A full investigation is under way, but it looks like it's the fault of the bus driver." He said 18 people had been killed at the same crossing in a similar accident in 1982.
The Prime Minister, Mr Peter Medgyessy, who visited the scene with the German ambassador, said his government would examine whether more safety barriers should be installed at rail crossings. "This is maybe the most horrific bus accident in Hungary's history," he said, adding he had contacted the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder.
The bodies of many of the dead, pulled from under the partially derailed train, were laid out by the tracks awaiting identification. Emergency services brought in wooden coffins. Metal shards, torn bus seats and wires littered the tracks.
Germany said most of the passengers were from the northern states of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. They were staying in Siofok, about 100 km southwest of Budapest. The group had been on a day-trip but it was unclear if all 46 people were on the coach.
Bus owner Ursel-Reisen said the driver was competent and had worked with the company for years.
In an accident in the same region in July 2002, 19 Polish pilgrims were killed and 32 injured when their bus slid off the road and overturned near Lake Balaton.- (Reuters)