In a significant incident on Thursday, hundreds of commuters, including dozens with fractured bones, were sent to the hospital in Beijing after two trains collided on a busy metro line during snowy conditions, according to the city’s transportation authority.
The collision occurred around 7 p.m. during rush hour on the Changping subway line, which extends to the northwest of the Chinese capital. A preliminary investigation indicated that the incident was caused by a malfunction related to signal and emergency braking due to weather conditions, as stated by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport in a Friday statement.
The sequence of events leading to the collision involved one train making an emergency stop due to slippery tracks in the snow, while another following closely behind crashed into it. The second train, situated on a downhill section, slid in the snowy weather and failed to brake effectively, resulting in a rear-end collision with the first train, according to the commission’s statement.
A total of 515 people were taken to the hospital for examination, with 102 of them found to have fractures. Fortunately, there were no reported fatalities in the incident. As of 6 a.m. on Friday, 423 people had left the hospital, as mentioned in the statement.
The city’s subway operator, in a statement Thursday evening, referred to preliminary information suggesting that two end carriages had detached from one train, causing injuries to passengers. Videos captured by witnesses and circulated on social media appeared to show separated train cars, with one passenger exclaiming in a video, “The subway train I took broke into two parts!”
The incident occurred on an above-ground section of the subway, which typically handles nearly 400,000 passenger trips on a weekday, according to state media.
In response to the incident, Beijing Transport issued an apology, promising a thorough investigation and any necessary fixes to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The collision took place against the backdrop of a cold snap and snowfall in Beijing and northern China since Wednesday, leading to transport disruptions and school closures. On Thursday evening, the city was under an orange alert for heavy snow and a yellow alert for icy roads. China employs a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe alert, followed by orange, yellow, and blue.