A train packed with hundreds of passengers hit a pickup truck in central
Israel on Monday, causing a locomotive and three rail cars to overturn.
Sixty-three people were injured, officials said.
Five people also were trapped inside the overturned cars, and by 2 p.m. (7
a.m. EDT), emergency services had freed two of them. Two of the three who were
still pinned down did not respond to rescue personnel's calls, police said.
One woman told Army Radio that her trapped husband called her twice on his
mobile phone to say he could see other, seriously injured people pinned down in
the same car.
Twisted metal, downed trees and tipped train cars were scattered on top of
and beside the tracks. One of the derailed cars came to rest on top of another
car, and the crushed pickup truck stood several yards away from the tracks.
Rescue teams rushed into the cars to evacuate the wounded, some of whom were
treated under eucalyptus trees flanking the tracks.
Police said the truck had stopped at the closed train crossing, but was
pushed onto the tracks by another vehicle that plowed into it from behind. The
driver escaped before the train struck, and phoning a number on the barrier,
tried to alert Israel Railways to the vehicle on the tracks, but wasn't able to
avert the train wreck, media reported.
Michah Sher, a spokesman for Israel Railways, said 200 passengers were on the
12- to 14-car train.
There were conflicting reports on whether the truck had tried to cross a
barrier that was down.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the barrier was down at the time of the
accident, but a witness in a passenger car who identified herself only as Miri
told Israel Radio that the gate was up.
"I'm not sure why (the truck) got stuck, but its two front wheels got
caught," she said. "The driver got out before the crossing gate came down. ...
The train just continued steaming ahead with the truck, and the truck was
crushed."
