A regional train derailed in mysterious circumstances in northern Italy yesterday, but the potentially disastrous event left only one passenger slightly injured.
The accident occurred just before noon at the Carnate-Usmate station, about 30km northeast of Milan’s central station.
Initial reports from emergency services said three people were slightly hurt: the train driver, the train conductor and the only passenger who was on board.
Hours later, railway company Trenord said the driver and the conductor were not on the train, and that the train had left from the nearby station of Paderno with no staff controlling it.
“Concerning the incident that happened this morning near Carnate,
Trenord specifies that only one passenger was aboard, who sustained light bruises,” the company said.
Trenord said safety systems were activated to steer the runaway convoy onto a dead-end track at Carnate station.
It also announced an internal investigation, including on the conduct of its staff.
The La Repubblica daily said the driver and conductor had stepped off the train for a break, but a Trenord spokeswoman could not confirm this.
The AGI news agency said the driver and the conductor also suffered light bruises while trying to run after the train, which rolled down from a gradient for a few kilometres before crashing.
Footage from local website Milano Today showed that the last three of train’s seven carriages had derailed.
One could be seen lying sideways, while another was at a 90° angle from the tracks.
“We heard a bang and we immediately went outside, we thought it was an earthquake,” a woman working in a nearby doctors’ surgery told the Ansa news agency.
The crash forced the suspension of rail traffic the Milan-Lecco line, which links the northern Italian metropolis to Lake Como – a popular tourist resort.
“These events should not be happening,” Lombardy President Attilio Fontana wrote on Facebook.