Probe after train splits in two
A four-carriage passenger train which split in two while travelling at 25mph could have resulted in a serious accident, rail company Iarnrod Eireann said today.
Travellers were left shocked after the front two carriages decoupled from the rear cars on the Rosslare to Dublin route.
Iarnrod Eireann said the four-car train was carrying around 40 passengers on route for Enniscorthy on the 1.25pm service to Dublin yesterday when the incident occurred.
Barry Kenny, the State rail company’s spokesman, agreed that if a person had been walking between the two carriages at the time it could have resulted in a much more serious accident.
“Thankfully no one on board was injured, and no danger resulted to people as a result,” he said.
Mr Kenny added: “It is a very serious incident, thankfully it is extremely rare event.
“There is a thorough investigation under way because it is extremely serious,” he said.
“Because the potential is there that if someone was passing through one carriage to another through the connecting doors that we would be talking about a far more serious incident today.”
Mr Kenny said that the emergency brake would have been quickly applied to the train, which was travelling at 25mph, but anyone who saw the gap develop would have been quite shocked.
Iarnrod Eireann engineers were examining the train to uncover exactly how the carriages separated.
Mr Kenny said the train had been brought to the company’s maintenance centre in Drogheda for technical examination.
“It could technical fault or human error we will be looking at every aspect of it to establish the cause,” he told RTE radio.
Iarnrod Eireann said the incident was extremely rare and had only happened on a “handful of occasions” over the last decade.
Mr Kenny said the trains were not old and dated from around 1998.
