ROME, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Traffic on Rome's metro
line resumed Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after the collision between
two trains, which killed at least one person and injured over 200, according to
reports reaching here.
The tracks of the "A" metro line reopened at 7:36 a.m. (0536 GMT) after
rescue workers and technical personnel had removed the damaged metro trains
overnight, the city's public transport company said.
However, the reasons why one train ran into the back
of another, while it was letting passengers get off at the Piazza Vittorio
station, remained a mystery.
The cause of the accident "has still to be identified
and we can't rule anything out," Italian Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi
said Tuesday night in a report to parliament on the accident.
Bianchi added that the security systems installed on
the two trains were the best on the market. They had three braking systems, two
of which could activate automatically in dangerous situations.
Rome prosecutors have launched an investigation into
the accident and the local government has set up a commission of inquiry to find
the causes.
Technical experts from the Spanish company which
supplied the trains were helping to examine the wreckage for clues to the
dynamics of the collision.
The "black box" recorders from the two trains have
been recovered and experts were expected to begin studying them immediately. A
key detail recorded by the black boxes was the speed of the second train on
impact.
According to reports, the moving train went through a
red light, after being given permission to do so by the metro system's central
control room. This order, which is not uncommon, was given in order to space out
the trains on the line at a moment of high congestion.
The driver of the second train, Angelo Tomei,
survived the crash and has confirmed going through a red light.
He said he was driving slowly, as is laid down in the
rules for this sort of situation, when drivers must rely on their own vision and
in any case not exceed 15 km per hour.
Tomei has reportedly told investigators that he
noticed something was wrong a few minutes before impact, which included a loud
noise and a burning smell. Enditem
Related: Two killed, 60 injured in
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ROME, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and up to 60 others injured
as two subway trains collided during the morning rush hour Tuesday in Rome,
authorities said. >>>
