Train Collision Near Krizevci: 25 Injured, Probe Underway
Police raised the toll to 25 injured. Signal data show the freight train ran through a stop signal at the Sveti Ivan Zabno station, and the line remains closed.
The train collision near Krizevci, which we reported on Saturday with an initial toll of 20 injured, produced a higher casualty count overnight and the first concrete lead on its cause. Croatian police said 25 people were injured, among them both train drivers and a conductor, and signaling data show the freight train passed a stop signal at the Sveti Ivan Zabno station for a reason that remains unknown. The line was recently renovated and the train involved is new, so the question of responsibility has shifted from the tracks to the people running the system from day one, a question that follows every modernized railway in the region, including those in Serbia.
The collision happened on Saturday, August 8, at 10:05 am near Skrinjari, between the Sveti Ivan Zabno and Gradec stations, not far from Krizevci. A HZ Cargo freight train collided with a HZ Putnicki Prijevoz passenger train carrying around twenty passengers. There were no fatalities.
What the Signaling System Shows
The first account of what happened on the line came from Mario Grbesic, president of the Trade Union of Croatian Transport Workers, who reached the scene shortly after the collision. He told Croatian broadcaster RTL that the passenger train had left the Gradec station properly and that the collision occurred after the freight train passed a signal showing a stop indication.
Grbesic also explained why the consequences were not more severe.
“The maximum permitted speed on this section is 120 kilometers per hour. Luckily, there is a stop where the passenger train had halted before setting off again, so I assume the impact speed was significantly lower than that limit. Otherwise we would be talking about a catastrophe.”
The passenger train, in other words, had only just pulled away from the stop when it met the train coming from the opposite direction. The exact speed at the moment of impact has not been established and will be part of the investigation.
Who Was Injured and Where They Are Being Treated
The passenger train was driven by a 61 year old engineer, the freight train by a 20 year old one, and the injured also include a 43 year old conductor. The passenger train’s driver was more seriously hurt and was taken to KBC Zagreb, where three people are in intensive care with serious injuries, mostly fractures that do not currently require surgery.
Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butkovic, after visiting the hospital, listed how the injured had been distributed:
- three at KBC Zagreb, on Rebro
- one at KBC Sestre Milosrdnice
- four at the General Hospital in Bjelovar
- four at the General Hospital in Virovitica
According to the hospitals, none of the injured are in life threatening condition.
How Firefighters Prevented a 1,400 Liter Diesel Explosion
The call reached firefighters at 10:11 am, and 51 firefighters from the public fire departments of Krizevci and Djurdjevac, along with volunteer units from surrounding areas, responded. Fuel was leaking from one of the locomotives, about 1,400 liters of diesel, so firefighters covered both locomotives in foam and pumped the fuel out into containers. A helicopter from the emergency medical service flew out the most seriously injured person, while a local resident who brought a forklift helped some of the passengers off the train.
Butkovic: Infrastructure Cannot Be the Cause
Butkovic first visited the injured at KBC Zagreb, then went to the crash site. He also spoke with the passenger train’s driver, a man who has worked on the railway for 42 years and was nearing retirement, who braked and retreated to the back of the cabin the moment he saw the train coming from the opposite direction.
“The investigation is still ongoing, of course, and we cannot say much about it, all the institutions are doing their job. It is still hard to talk about the actual cause. What I insist on, and what matters most, is that the institutions carry out a fast and effective investigation as soon as possible to establish the cause of the accident,” the minister said at the scene.
Asked whether human error was involved, he answered cautiously.
“Unfortunately, the human factor is always present, but let’s wait for this investigation to run its course, and then we will know more.”
One thing he ruled out immediately, pointing to the fact that the line was newly built and the train a new electric battery model.
“As for the condition of the infrastructure on this section, and of this train, that cannot be the cause. We will see what the investigation confirms.”
Why Two Investigations Are Running in Parallel
The on site examination is complete, and the case now splits into two tracks. Police and the state prosecutor’s office are determining whether there is criminal liability, in other words looking for a name and a failure. The Agency for Investigation of Accidents in Air, Maritime and Rail Traffic is running a separate safety investigation, whose goal is not to assign blame but to issue recommendations that prevent a repeat, and it has already opened a case file covering freight train number 81330 and passenger train number 931 on line L214. The Agency’s final report will be made public, but such reports typically take months.
The line remains closed to traffic on that section. Butkovic announced that removing the trains and reopening the line will begin as soon as investigators finish their work on site, and no special commission is being formed for now. HZ Cargo said the company is cooperating with the institutions and that, once the police examination concludes, an internal commission made up of representatives from HZ Infrastruktura, HZ Cargo and HZ Putnicki Prijevoz will take over the case.
