Italian LPG train derails, killing 14
A freight train carrying liquefied petroleum gas derailed in a seaside Italian town late Monday night, killing 14 and injuring 50, international news outlets reported.
The accident occurred in Viareggio, about 220 miles north of Rome, as the 14-car train was transiting from La Spezia to Pisa. One carriage derailed, pulling another four off the rails and triggering a massive explosion that lit up nearby homes and produced 40-foot-high flames, according to witnesses.
About 1,000 people were evacuated following the blast just before midnight. Thirty-seven people were serious injured, with 16 of them in critical condition, including a 2-year-old who was badly burned and was being transferred to a hospital in Florence, rescue workers said.
Vienna-based GATX Rail Europe, a unit of the U.S.-based GATX Corp, owns the rail cars, but told Reuters it did not know the cause of the explosion and was gathering information from news reports. The train was driven by a locomotive belonging to the Italian state-owned railways Trenitalia.
Italian safety watchdog groups denounced the decision-making that led to the accident, saying a train carrying dangerous cargo should never have been allowed to pass so closely to residential neighborhoods. They also blamed the poor state of the country's older rail lines.
Italian LPG train derails, killing 14
