Today 14 January, at approximately 9.30 am (3.30 am in Italy), a railway tragedy occurred in Thailand, when a crane collapsed on a moving train, causing it to derail and causing a fire inside the affected carriage. According to what was reported by the international media, there were at least 22 victims and 79 injured out of a total of 195 people on board.
The train was headed from Bangkok to the province of Ubon Ratchathani, in the north-east of the country, and was involved in the accident near Ban Thanon Khot, in the province of Nakhon Ratchasima. The crane involved in the collapse was working on a new high-speed rail line which, once completed, will connect Kumming, China, with the Thai capital. Specifically, it seems that the crane, at the time of the accident, was lifting a large block of concrete: this, falling, would then have hit some of the carriages, causing their derailment.
According to what Thirasak Wongsoongnern, a member of the train’s staff, told local media, at the time of impact the vehicle was traveling at a speed of around 120 km/h – although the exact reconstruction of the events will be clarified in the coming weeks after in-depth investigations by the police.
One of the aspects that is causing the most discussion – in addition to the tragedy itself – concerns the construction company, the Italian-Thai Development. This is in fact the same company that built the building that collapsed last March following an earthquake with its epicenter in Myanmar, over 1000 km away. The BBC said they have contacted them for more information on the matter but, at the time of writing this article, no statement has yet been made on the matter.
