Paramedics load a stricken passenger into an ambulance after today’s train crash. (Twitter: @RobOliverCT)
Two Metro-North trains collided in Connecticut during the evening rush hour Friday, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five critically injured and one very critically injured, Gov. Dannel Malloy said. There were no reports of fatalities.
The accident happened about 6:10 p.m. just east of the Bridgeport-Fairfield line when an eastbound train heading to New Haven from New York derailed and collided with a westbound train on a section of track near a viaduct that is under renovation.
Photos on the Connecticut Post’s website showed people being taken on stretchers to waiting ambulances, and first responders from Fairfield, Bridgeport and nearby Fairfield University were on the scene.
“We’re most concerned about the injured and ultimately reopening the system,” Malloy said from the scene about three hours after the crash. He said there was no reason to believe it was anything other than an accident.
Malloy said that most people were not seriously hurt. He said there was extensive damage to the train cars and the track, and it could take until Monday for normal service to be restored.
He said the area where the accident happened was down to two tracks because of repair work and that the accident will have a “big impact on the Northeast Corridor.”
Bill Kaempffer, a spokesman for Bridgeport public safety, told The Associated Press that about 250 people were on board the two trains.
“At this stage, we don’t know if this is a mechanical failure, an accident or something deliberate,” Fairfield police spokesman Lt. James Perez told the Connecticut Post.
The accident occurred on a stretch of tracks undergoing repairs, with only two of the four tracks in use, forcing trains to pass each other on adjacent tracks.
A viaduct carrying trains over busy Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport where the accident occurred is also undergoing a major reconstruction project.
— with AP