Serious accident in Mexico City's metro system
This Monday night, 3 May, a section of the metro tracks collapsed, killing more than 20 people and injuring 70. It is one of the biggest tragedies in Mexico since the 2017 earthquake. Mexican public transport suffers one of its biggest blows, and will have to inspect the causes of this accident. The head of the regional government, Claudia Sheinbaum, mobilised to the area of the accident, where the first thing she notified the press was the number of injured, which for the first minutes of the accident counted only 49 of them. "I am on the scene. A structure collapsed. Firefighters, public safety personnel are working. They are attending various hospitals. We will give more information shortly... So far this is the report from the Civil Protection Secretariat. Unfortunately there are people dead and injured. I am on site supporting the installation of the Command Centre. The Public Prosecutor's Office is moving with various units to hospitals," Sheinbaum said on Twitter.
The incident occurred at around 22:00 local time, between the Olivos and Tezonco metro stations on line 12 of the capital's metro. Authorities indicate that a beam of the elevated walkway was defeated, and that a car had been trapped at the scene of the accident. Images from security cameras show how the elevated infrastructure of the track breaks and the carriages fall into the void with a height of approximately 20 metres, the image shows how the carriages are left in a "V" shape, hanging from above. The emergency teams of the Secretariat of Integrated Risk Management (SGIRPC) arrived within minutes of the accident, using ladders to open the doors of the wagons, in order to assist the victims. After assisting the injured at the scene, 49 of the 70 injured were transported to different hospitals in Mexico City, "at the moment, we have a report of 49 transfers to hospitals; 20 people unfortunately lost their lives. Of those transported to hospitals, 38 injured have been identified," the SGIRPC said.
In Mexico City, as one of the most populated cities in the world, public transport is one of the main priorities for the mobility of its citizens within the city, transporting almost 6 million people from Monday to Friday, with a lower capacity at weekends. One of the major demands of the citizens is the poor maintenance and precariousness of the infrastructure of the metro service, which frequently suffers from delays or interruptions in the system. Line 12, known as the "golden line", was inaugurated in 2012 by Marcelo Ebrard, when he was the capital's chief of staff and is currently Mexico's chancellor. This line was stopped for almost a year and a half in several of its stations, just after the start of its operations. The diagnosis at that time was that the line had problems and failures in the planning, design and construction that caused stress on the tracks, and consequently, several parts of the structure were changed.
In 2017, the neighbours, who live in the area where the accident occurred, had denounced that they feared the infrastructure would collapse due to cracks and the fall of several pieces of the construction after the earthquake of that year, this area was subject to repairs. Users on Twitter directly accused Marcelo Ebrad of being responsible for the tragedy, and he was quick to react. "What happened today in the Metro is a terrible tragedy. My solidarity with the victims and their families. Of course the causes must be investigated and responsibilities must be determined. I reiterate that I am entirely at the disposal of the authorities to contribute in whatever way is necessary," said the current foreign minister.
Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra
