KIRYAT GAT, Israel, 22 June 2005 — At least seven people were killed and around 100 injured yesterday when a packed commuter train hit a truck in southern Israel, the emergency services and police said. Some 15 of the injured were in serious condition after the crash near the southern city of Kiryat Gat, rescue services told Channel 2 television. Initial police reports said the train, which was heading for the city of Beersheva, hit a lorry crossing the tracks in the middle of the fields of a kibbutz.
A police source told Channel 2 that the lorry had most likely stalled or become stuck on the tracks just before the train approached.
The train driver apparently tried to make an emergency stop but smashed into the truck at around 90 kilometers per hour. The lorry driver was among the dead, medics said.
The 500-seat train “was full, including the first carriage”, passenger Yonah Lichtenstein told army radio. “Suddenly we felt a terrible jolt, people and glass began flying through the air. Several seconds afterward, there was a second jolt.
There was a terrible fear the carriage would roll over, but we stayed upright.
“It was impossible to open the doors, so we broke the windows. At the end of the train, I saw what looked like a platform laid out, which I later realized was the first carriage.”
Images from the crash scene showed the shattered remains of the lorry, its twisted carcass smashed, with large chunks of metal thrown up to 150 meters from the track.
The train crashed at the height of the evening rush hour and some reports said passengers had been standing in the aisles.
