Monday night, a freak accident involving a Mexico City subway train resulted in tragedy in the most populous city in North America. As the train was traveling along an overpass above a busy highway, the bridge collapsed, dropping the train onto the highway and claiming over 23 lives. More than 60 people were injured.
Videos taken of the accident showed the train cars strewn about the highway, dangling from the bridge above and littering the area with debris. Rescue personal can be seen in the videos digging through debris to find the injured in order to take them to safety.
The incident has raised questions about the city’s infrastructure, with many calling on the city to inspect similar overpasses and make sure they’re all up to code.
What Happened?
“A support beam gave way,” said Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum when asked at the scene of the accident what happened. Just as the train was passing over the support beam, the mayor explained, the beam collapsed, bringing the overpass down with it onto traffic.
During the rescue operations, a crane was used to lift the train so crews could get to cars trapped underneath. According to the mayor, some people caught directly under the train in cars survived and were rushed to the hospital. All told, 65 people have been taken to hospitals at the time of this writing, and seven of them are in “critical” condition.
Bizarre Accident
Despite some perceptions of Mexico City as a place with unreliable infrastructure, many architects have noted the sophistication of the city’s subway system. As such, this kind of freak accident raises questions about the safety of similar overpasses and support beams. The city is more populous than New York, and public transportation makes up a huge percentage of all travel within the city limits.
The mayor went on to emphasize the need for an investigation into the accident. “If there’s a need for an external investigation, there will be one. We will get to the truth, and we will get justice.”
Line 12, the line that collapsed, was first built in 2012. It’s hardly aging or decrepit, making the collapse all the more unusual, according to authorities. Mayor Sheinbaum’s comments have struck some online commentators as a suggestion that foul play could have been at work in the incident, though no officials have made any accusations regarding sabotage as of the time of this writing.
